Corona pandemic: traffic lights fail due to processing

The traffic light coalition wanted to review the Corona policy. But that probably won’t happen anymore. She has already fallen out over the format.

The Greens no longer expect that the traffic light coalition can agree on dealing with Corona. “To my great regret, I now have to realize that there is no common agreement between the SPD and FDP on the question of how this process should take place,” said Green Party parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge on Tuesday in Berlin. “We would have been completely open to any format.”

The Greens were therefore prepared to go along with everything in the end, said Dröge, “The main thing is that there is a clear message to people in this country that the German Bundestag will begin to come to terms with it during this legislative period.”

However, it was not possible for the coalition to reach a common position, said Dröge. She could appeal for a common solution to be found, but: “Unfortunately, we don’t have that at the moment.”

The coalition recently felt that an agreement had to be reached in these weeks so that it could still make sense to work through the matter before the elections in autumn 2025. However, there is now a lack of belief in other factions that this will still work.

From the beginning there was a dispute about the correct format. The FDP wanted a study commission, a kind of investigative committee made up of politicians and experts. The SPD with Chancellor Olaf Scholz had called for a citizens’ assembly – in order to involve people in the process, but also because there was concern about a “tribunal against individual ministers”.

According to t-online information, there have recently been considerations in the traffic light to do both: citizens’ council and study commission. But in the end, the SPD and FDP got stuck over the question of how a study commission should be staffed. The FDP was therefore skeptical as to whether and which state representatives should be there and at least wanted the federal government to have the last word. The SPD didn’t want it that way.