Stuttgart – Baden-Württemberg’s Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) holds demonstrators who use corona protests to defame state institutions “For vultures of the pandemic”. For right-wing extremists, for whom the pandemic is just a welcome opportunity to rush against the state, this term is “a good description”, Kretschmann told journalists on Tuesday in Stuttgart.
The Prime Minister took up a formulation by the CDU parliamentary group leader in the Baden-Württemberg state parliament, Manuel Hagel. This had accused the AfD MPs of being the “political vultures of the pandemic”. In the case of bourgeois vaccination opponents, on the other hand, refusal is often a question of worldview, said Kretschmann. He knows from personal experience that arguments are useless here.
Kretschmann: Compulsory vaccination has a morally relieving effect
Despite the recent protests, Kretschmann continued to advocate compulsory vaccination. He had the hope that this could have a satisfactory effect in the medium term – “mainly because we can end the pandemic with a mandatory vaccination”, but also because a duty “relieves moral burdens”, said Kretschmann.
According to figures from the Ministry of Social Affairs in Baden-Württemberg, ten to 15 percent of citizens are vehemently opposed to vaccinations. The remaining unvaccinated persons were to be motivated to vaccinate by an obligation. Kretschmann called the current rate of first vaccinations in his country of 70.1 percent “depressing”.
Twitter trends: #Vulture pandemic causes a stir
Kretschmann’s statement is controversially discussed on Twitter. User Jeanette writes, for example, that she is celebrating the Green politician “for the first time, but something!”. It couldn’t be more aptly expressed, she says. In contrast, user Charly Roth considers Kretschmann’s approach to be inflammatory and dehumanizing:
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