Chancellor Angela Merkel is putting pressure on the German states to still adhere to the agreed tightening of the corona measures. On Wednesday, Merkel canceled her strict ‘Easter lockdown’ after a storm of criticism about the extra corona measures around the holidays.
The tightening of the corona measures is necessary to reduce the rapidly increasing number of new corona infections, Merkel said in an interview at ARD.
“We have our emergency brake, but unfortunately it is not being respected everywhere,” Merkel said. By this she referred to the measure agreed with the federal states that entails the introduction of strict restrictions for a certain number of infections. “We have to implement the right measures with great seriousness. And some states are doing it, others aren’t,” Merkel said.
Germany is experiencing a significant resurgence of the corona virus, mainly driven by the so-called British variant. However, the Berlin government and state leaders increasingly disagree on how to contain the outbreak.
Not the time to relax
For example, a number of federal states refuse to apply plans for a strict lockdown also to areas where the number of infections is relatively low. However, according to Merkel, the contamination figures are also unstable in those areas. “Therefore, now is not the time to consider such easing,” said the head of government.
According to the chancellor, who is in her fourth and, in his own words, last term, more restrictions are needed to stop the corona virus on time, for example further limiting the number of allowed contacts, setting a curfew and focusing on working from home.
– .
