Chancellor Olaf Scholz is probably congratulating himself regularly these days on his excellent personnel selection. That minister, whom he only accepted into his team at the urging of the outside world, because he feared that he would hardly be controllable – precisely that minister named Karl Lauterbach steers himself in an exemplary manner on the Scholz course. This became very clear on Wednesday at the federal press conference.
The evening before, the Prime Minister’s Conference together with the government did what it does best: it avoided unpleasant decisions about pandemic issues. In the past, Karl Lauterbach would have seriously expressed his concern the day after that more would have to be done in view of the impending omicron wave. But now the republic sees a health minister of the same name who explains that contact restrictions are the right measure, even if they come after Christmas.
Next to him sat Lothar Wieler, the President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), which the day before caused a lot of trouble in the MPK with a statement. The RKI had posted a tweet during the federal-state summit on Tuesday, in which “maximum contact restrictions” were demanded and that with immediate effect. That had caused trouble, but both gentlemen dimmed the conflict as expected. They have the same goal, assured Wieler and Lauterbach declared that they wanted to look ahead together. That’s what politicians always say when coming to terms with it is too painful or too dangerous. It is like this: the office changes people more than the person changes the office. Over the next few months, we will all find out together what this will mean for Karl Lauterbach and for coping with the pandemic.
.