2024-04-01 19:02:45
Four years after the first Corona lockdown, the calls for action are louder than ever. t-online asked leading politicians from the pandemic period: What were the biggest mistakes?
Two years of state of emergency: From the beginning of 2020, the coronavirus brought unprecedented fears, discussions and restrictions. Especially at the beginning of the pandemic, there were horror scenarios and warnings of mass deaths. In Bergamo, Italy, bodies were transported away in trucks; in India, people struggled for air in front of overcrowded hospitals.
Politicians acted under enormous pressure, met in night meetings, discussed heatedly, counted hospital beds, staff and infection numbers. It adopted measures piecemeal, closed schools and businesses, imposed distance rules, mandatory masks, and contact, assembly and access bans. Basic rights were abandoned in the hope of saving lives.
“We will have to forgive each other a lot,” said then Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) early in the Bundestag. Now, around four years after the start of the first lockdown, the calls for action are greater than ever.
But what is there to forgive? t-online asked leading politicians and scientists: What were the biggest political mistakes in the pandemic?
Michael Kretschmer: “Developed dramatically wrong”
Saxony’s Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU) sat in the federal-state conferences during the pandemic. The committee that largely determined the Corona measures. Critics demonstrated in front of his private home, and Kretschmer didn’t just face the conversation there. He says:
“I was insulted by other parties when I tried to talk to critical people during the Corona period. It was clear to me that in a democracy there can’t be just one opinion. It was also important to argue in a differentiated and appreciative way during this time very important, but unfortunately not given to everyone.
The longer the protective measures lasted, the more wrong they became. The sectoral vaccination requirement was well-intentioned, but turned out dramatically wrong. When this was clear at the beginning of 2022 and we asked the new Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach to abolish them together, he refused. At the time I was stunned by the stubbornness and refusal to acknowledge realities.
A discussion by the writer Juli Zeh and the constitutional judge Hans-Jürgen Papier about the interference with fundamental rights and the silence of the Federal Constitutional Court made me very thoughtful. We must at least learn from this time that the end does not justify the means and that we need a courageous constitutional court that sets limits.”
Stephan Weil: “That didn’t help anyone”
Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) has ruled the country for eleven years. His style is considered calm and calm. However, the Corona measures turned citizens against him, and the police protected his home from demonstrators in April 2021. He says:
“In principle, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, it was possible to limit the number of deaths through consistent protection against infection. Unfortunately, the exact number will of course never be able to be determined precisely. What was particularly good in dealing with the corona pandemic was the close cooperation with the Science, the comparatively good vaccination organization with correspondingly high vaccination rates and ensuring medical care for seriously ill corona patients.
The needs of children and young people, on the other hand, have not been sufficiently taken into account, as various studies have now shown. The fact that many old and sick people suffered from loneliness during the peak phases of Corona or sometimes even had to die alone is also concerning. Finally: The fact that the Corona rules differed from country to country didn’t help anyone in the end.”