BERLIN (AP) – Germany’s largest government party announced Thursday that it is seeking a decision by the end of March on the introduction of a universal mandate for COVID-19 vaccines.
Parliament last month passed a law that will require workers in hospitals and nursing homes to show by mid-March that they are fully vaccinated or have already recovered from the coronavirus. Progress towards a contentious universal mandate has been slower than expected.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has endorsed the mandate, but wants lawmakers to vote according to their conscience rather than along party lines. The idea is for Parliament to vote on proposals prepared by groups of legislators instead of those proposed by the government.
There are divisions in the three-party governing coalition over whether a universal vaccine mandate is desirable, especially among the Free Democrats, the coalition’s junior partner. Additionally, it was not clear how the mandate would be designed.
Two top lawmakers from Scholz’s center-left party, the Social Democrats, Dagmar Schmidt and Dirk Wiese, said in a statement Thursday that they seek to “conclude the legislative process in the first quarter of this year.”
They argued that a broad discussion of the matter is necessary, “so we will take enough time for that” and called for an initial debate in Parliament this month.
Ralph Brinkhaus, leader of the center-right opposition parliamentary bloc Union, said the government should come up with the proposals. He opined in statements to ARD television that the form of a universal vaccine mandate is a “leadership decision” and that “Scholz cannot now delegate it to Parliament.”
The leader of the Free Democrats, Finance Minister Christian Lindner, strongly rejected the idea of changing the approach. He said that deciding on the matter in a free vote is “a contribution to the reconciliation of society as a whole.”
For its part, neighboring Austria has already prepared a proposal for legislation to introduce a universal vaccine mandate, which the government expects to take effect next month.
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