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Germany’s new coalition government ‘thwarted Merkel plan for two-week lockdown’

Germany’s new government thwarted a plan by outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel to put in place a two-week Austria-style national lockdown, German tabloid Bild reported on Wednesday.

Published: 24 November 2021 17:45 CET

Germany's outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel and incoming Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/dpa POOL | Michael Kappeler

One of Germany’s new ‘traffic light’ coalition government’s first actions was to overrule a plan by the government of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel to put in place an immediate two-week lockdown.

Merkel put forth the proposal on Tuesday evening, and according to Bild the lockdown would have applied from Thursday onwards. It was however knocked back by the incoming government, who said it would have been interpreted by the public as a “bad political trick” in tandem by the old and the new government, Bild reported on Wednesday afternoon.

Citing several sources close to the government, Bild said Merkel wanted to cut rising infection rates through a ‘handbrake’ style national lockdown, which would have included closures of bars, restaurants and shops.

Like Austria’s lockdown, which came into effect on Monday, November 22nd, the measure would have applied not only to the unvaccinated, but also to those who have been vaccinated against Covid or who have recently recovered from the virus.

Germany’s new Infection Protection Act came into effect on Wednesday, which prevents such a nationwide lockdown and instead places greater responsibility on Germany’s 16 federal states.

Therefore, the new act restricts the current government’s power to put in place a nationwide lockdown should it be deemed necessary and will require agreement from the states should harsher measures be adopted.

Covid cases have been surging in Germany in recent days, hitting record heights.

Several parts of the country, primarily in the heavily-hit south, have put in place restrictive measures including stay at home orders and requiring restaurants to close.

Member comments

Ali - 25 November 2021 at 11:36 CET

Good. That would have turned into another 7 month one and we know it.

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What could the Hesse elections mean for international residents?

On October 8th, the state election will be held in the German state of Hesse – home of the banking hub of Frankfurt am Main – which could have an impact on a federal level, as well as for the state’s international residents.

With 6.4 million inhabitants, the forested central state has been ruled by the Christian Democrats (CDU) uninterrupted for the last 24 years, and is currently governed by a so-called “Black-Green” coalition led by incumbent state premier Boris Rhein alongside the Greens as junior partner.

The state’s current legislative period has been particularly turbulent, with the COVID-19 pandemic, the assassination of Walter Lübke by the far-right as well as the racist attack in Hanau when 11 people were murdered. There was also the suicide of CDU finance minister Thomas Schäfer.

Challenging Rhein in the elections along the Rhine River is a familiar face from national politics, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser of Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD). Standing as the head of the Hesse branch of the SPD, Faeser hopes to come in first place and become prime minister of the wealthy state. But the polls aren’t in her favour, with the SPD currently tied neck-and-neck with the Greens at 18 percent, with the CDU significantly ahead at 30 percent.

Here’s what each party is proposing:

Social Democrats (SPD)

The SPD has decided to focus on the shortage of skills, known as the Fachkraftmangel. They claim that Hesse alone will be lacking 180,000 qualified workers in the coming years, whether those are physical labourers, factory workers, daycare workers or teachers.

Nancy Faeser (SPD), Federal Minister of the Interior/leading candidate for the Hesse elections. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Andreas Arnold

The Social Democrats have set a number of policies aimed at making immigration easier. These include:

Setting diversity quotas in public offices so that “the diversity of society is reflected in state administration”
Free integration and German language courses, for EU and non-EU citizens
Simplifying the state’s official bureaucratic language and introducing multilingual aids to help people fill in the sometimes complex forms needed to register for life in Germany
Allowing non-EU citizens to vote in local elections after 6 years if they have permanent residency

It’s worth noting that the proposal to allow non-EU citizens to vote was initially for after just six months, though this was described as “an editorial error” and changed to six years after backlash.

Christian Democrats (CDU)

Having governed stably with the Greens through challenging times, Boris Rhein is considered a moderate conservative and has criticised any hints from within his own party that it should cooperate with the far-right AfD. After two and a half decades of state government, the CDU was never going to offer a political revolution in this election. Nevertheless, there are still some new policies which could affect international residents, including:

“Hessengeld”: a grant of €10,000 for first-time house buyers, with an additional €5000 for each child
Converting former commercial property into housing
Enabling access to high-speed fibre optic internet by 2030
Creating an independent state secretary for migration issues
Making compulsory “rule of law” classes available in every district, as well as introducing measures demanding sufficient German language skills

Greens

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Greens are primarily focused on building Hesse’s capacity for renewable energy and want to make the state climate-neutral by 2035 at the latest, instead of the current target of 2045. With record polling, the current deputy state premiere Tarek Al-Wazir is presenting himself as a candidate for the state’s top job as Ministerpräsident for the first time, but it is more likely that they will govern again with the CDU as they may not have the votes for a coalition with the SPD and FDP or a left wing red-red-green coalition alongside the SPD and Left Party.

On international issues, the Greens seem to have more in common with the left-leaning SPD than their current coalition partners when it comes to international and migration-related issues. Their policies include:

Setting up a welcome centre for skilled international workers which helps with the recognition of foreign qualifications and with residency law
Reduction of bureaucracy, with forms written in simple language and provided in languages other than German
Expanding public transport, including hourly buses statewide during the day time and a new night bus network.
Letting districts decide on their own speed limits in cities
Write a state anti-discrimination law and introduce a special prosecutor’s office for hate crimes
Allowing asylum seekers to change their status to immigrants, which would allow well-integrated and qualified people to remain in Germany

Free Democrat Party (FDP)

The FDP are quite a small party in Hesse and have declared that their goal is to get over 10 percent of the vote and re-enter government alongside the CDU after nine years in opposition, though this currently seems unlikely as they don’t have enough votes for a coalition with just the CDU. Their priorities will be on business, education, and digitalisation, with policies including:

Recognising foreign qualifications quickly
Fibre optic and 5G internet for everyone in Hesse by the end of the legislative period by measures such as installing mobile internet masts inside new and renovated publicly funded buildings
Introducing fully digitalised e-voting by 2028
A digital strategy in schools implementing fast wifi statewide, alongside tablets instead of textbooks and compulsory computer science lessons.
Allowing all immigrants to start work immediately

This last rule is set federally, so it is unlikely to change.

Left Party

Hesse was considered the Left Party’s stronghold in western Germany for a long time having entered state parliament in 2008. The current national co-leader of the party Janine Wissler was head of Hesse’s state Left Party before taking the top job.

But a local sexual harassment scandal, as well as infighting on a national scale, have left the far-left party wondering if it will be able to pass the 5 percent hurdle and re-enter the state parliament this time. They could potentially govern alongside the SPD and Greens like in neighbouring Thuringia. Their policies include:

Abolish the scandal-ridden state Office of Constitutional Protection
Abolish homework in schools and allow school classes to take place in widely spoken languages other than German
Allow workers to choose between working from home or the office
Simplify and digitalise public offices and introduce e-government services and citizen’s apps
Replace the monthly €49 Deutschland ticket with an annual so-called €365 ticket, following the model of Vienna where residents pay just €1 a day for public transport
Limit air traffic at Frankfurt airport to 1995 levels and stop short-term flights
Found a publicly owned non-profit housing company and buy or expropriate houses from corporations like Vonovia

Alternative for Germany (AfD)

Despite polling at 14 percent, the far-right AfD are very unlikely to enter state government in Hesse due to the well-established convention in German politics of democratic parties not cooperating with the far-right.

According to local news website Hessenschau, the party’s manifesto (Wahlprogramm) focuses on national and international issues, without many local policies. Nonetheless, there are some policies that could affect international residents and people wanting to move to Hesse from overseas:

Recruit skilled workers from non-EU countries only in extreme cases
Digitise the housing approvals processes
Expanding the A3, A5, A7 and A45 motorways

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