German Chancellor Angela Merkel attends the weekly cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, on March 31, 2021. REUTERS / Hannibal Hanschke / Pool
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday urged lawmakers to pass new powers that would allow her to force coronavirus closures and curfews in areas with high infection rates, according to most Germans in favor of stricter measures.
“The third wave of the pandemic has our country tightly controlled,” said Merkel, whose speech in parliament was interrupted by the dispute between lawmakers from the far-right Alternative for Germany party against the closures.
“Intensive care workers send one distress call after another. Who are we to ignore their pleas?” Said Merkel.
His government wants parliament to change the Infection Protection Act to allow federal authorities to enforce restrictions even if regional leaders oppose it, hoping to ease pressure on intensive care units. .
The imposition of curfews and the granting of powers to the federal government to force them into the 16 German states has also provoked criticism within Merkel’s conservative bloc, which according to opinion polls will suffer its worst result in a national election. of September.
Unlike Britain and France, Germany has been reluctant to impose drastic limits on movements in a country fiercely protective of democratic freedoms due to its communist and Nazi past.
Opponents of the closure have staged demonstrations throughout Germany, but particularly in the former East, which gives more support to the AfD. The far-right party says the restrictions have failed to stop the pandemic and cause more damage to both the economy and people’s mental health.
Merkel acknowledged in her speech that the new powers were not a bulletproof solution to the pandemic, which she said could only be defeated with vaccines.
AfD parliamentary leader Alice Weidel said the new measures were an unprecedented attack on basic democratic freedoms.
“The proposed amendments to the Infection Protection Act are an alarming document from an authoritarian state,” Weidel said. “This relapse into the authoritarian demon comes from the chancellery and from you, Madam Chancellor.”
Merkel looked at her smartphone for most of Weidel’s speech.
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