Germany, which has been in lockdown for almost two months, is suffering from the virus. Over 63,000 corona victims within a year, that is a number that makes you pause, scare you, shock you. But Germany is also increasingly suffering from the dispute over how to deal with the pandemic correctly. Scientific claims, ideologies and delusions come together, economic, social and cultural aspects. And all mixed up.
It is the task of politics to ensure that these competing claims are related to each other and that the store does not drift (further) apart. Politics – that is the Chancellor with her cabinet, that is the parliament, that is in the federal system of Germany, this federal state, also the large number of states. Often in these weeks, their coexistence works like an opposition, the federal state works like a federation of states without a superordinate common whole.
Special ways even before the consultations
The next date is hardly set for one of the recurring ones – the 21st! – Meeting between the Chancellor and the Prime Ministers of the federal states, one of the national leaders names this special request, the other the other. Or announce a special route. Mind you: before the consultations. There are prime ministers who act like kings when the sun is shining – and when there is a storm the annoying federal government has to deal with it. Sometimes a glance at the half-life of seemingly courageous Prime Minister tweets or agency reports is enough to verify this.
DW’s capital correspondent Christoph Strack
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Several times in the past few weeks, regional newspapers in the country reported as proudly as amused that the Chancellor had phoned the respective district administrator and got an idea of the Corona situation. Perhaps she trusts them more than the prime minister. And often it was about the situation in nursing homes.
Blatant failure in schools
The most blatant – most blatant also in failure – is the situation in schools. Children, parents, teachers – few other areas affect so many people at once. It’s about families, which are always called so important in Sunday speeches, and about the future of society.
For a year now, every socially disadvantaged child has been supposed to have a computer – but has not. For a year now, politicians have had time to provide ventilation systems other than “open windows” (because there are!). For a year now, politicians could have looked for additional rooms for school operations (cinemas, churches, empty halls – they are there too!). For a number of weeks now, politicians have been able to prepare weekly corona tests or several tests per week for school operations to start again – but where does all of this happen? Which public official made this their program? The song about “Bildungs Republik Deutschland” is an evergreen. But constant humming does not make it truer.
Now the federal states can decide on the opening of the schools, probably the primary schools for the time being. That is correct – and at the same time it is a test run to see how determined the countries as a whole are to implement the gradual opening to a little more normalcy. This will also be a test of federal diversity, which failed in the fall in the face of unanimous carelessness. Rural regions and cities that are more successful than others in reducing the number of infections can move forward. That’s right. The country had to shut down together – but the opening does not have to take place uniformly everywhere.
The countries in competition
To this end, the 21st meeting makes the prime ministers more responsible and sets a specific goal despite the dangerous mutants: with an incidence of 35, i.e. 35 new infections per 100,000 people per week, further openings are possible, including in retail stores and museums. Steps of normalization, which are then no longer just given uniformly from above. That can be an incentive to local or regional efforts – in positive terms: to a race. May it be togetherness in the competition for the “35”. The countries are now challenged. Because the country has been suffering from itself for too long.
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