Clarification of corona policy in Germany threatens to fail
Published: Saturday, Sep 28th 2024, 14:30
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The review of coronavirus policy proposed by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is in danger of failing due to a dispute within the governing coalition. The SPD and FDP were unable to agree in talks on which committee should deal with such a review of possible mistakes during the pandemic, the parliamentary groups told AFP on Saturday.
Chancellor Scholz and the SPD parliamentary group want to entrust a citizens' council with the investigation, while the FDP is calling for a parliamentary body such as a committee of inquiry or a commission of inquiry.
FDP interior politician Stephan Thomae accused the SPD of showing "no serious interest in clarification" to the AFP news agency and emphasized that "we are not available for any kind of pseudo-clarification". A political and scientific clarification of the pandemic policy must take place in a parliamentary body, "because this is the only way we can ensure that mistakes are not repeated," he told AFP.
The SPD, on the other hand, favors clarification on a broader social level in the form of a so-called citizens' council, in which political decision-makers as well as ordinary citizens can participate.
Review agreed before summer break
"To our great regret, we have not yet been able to reach sufficient agreement in the 'traffic light' to deal with the corona pandemic as comprehensively and sustainably as we as the SPD would like," SPD parliamentary group deputy leader Dagmar Schmidt told the partner newspapers of the Saturday editions of the Neue Berliner Redaktionsgesellschaft. She blamed the FDP in particular.
Before the summer break, the three coalition partners had agreed in principle on a critical review of the pandemic. Chancellor Scholz spoke out in favor of a citizens' assembly. The third coalition partner, the Greens, were recently open to a citizens' assembly or commission. The main thing is that there is a review of coronavirus policy at all, they argue.
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