However, they will not be able to impose curfews or travel restrictions, close restaurants, hotels, commercial or industrial establishments, or ban sports. The states will further retain the right to prohibit or restrict certain leisure, cultural and sporting events, as well as impose alcohol bans, and close universities - pending the approval of their state parliaments. Ministers would also retain the right to impose contact restrictions - a measure that was previously slated to expire along with the state of emergency. The traffic light coalition is also planning to make the 3G rule apply on both local public transport and long-distance transport, so that anyone who isn’t vaccinated or recovered would need a negative test to get on a bus or train. Anyone who did go into work would have to comply with 3G rules: meaning they would need to be vaccinated, recovered, or tested. 3G rules in workplaces and on public transportĪlso included in the draft are some new nationwide restrictions, including reviving the obligation for employers to allow their staff to work from home, unless they have a “compelling business reason” to come to the office. Some federal states, including Berlin and Saxony, have already implemented state-wide 2G rules. The coalition parties want to make it so that individual federal states can decide for themselves whether to use 3G rules, 2G rules (vaccinated and recovered people only), or 2G plus rules (vaccinated or recovered, plus a negative test result), in certain public spaces. Although the SPD, Green and FDP parties still intend to let the government’s emergency pandemic powers expire on November 25, they have tightened up the replacement legislation - meaning authorities in Germany will still have some tough pandemic-tackling measures in their toolboxes. The parties likely to form Germany’s next government have revised their planned amendment to the Infection Protection Act to pursue a stricter line on some issues. Traffic light coalition tightens up planned COVID law reform On Monday, the seven-day incidence rate in the federal republic exceeded the 300 mark for the first time. It concludes by recommending that Germany should follow England’s model and end the ‘lockdown for the unvaccinated’.The coalition parties have tightened up their plans for tackling coronavirus in Germany, with new draft legislation calling for 3G rules on public transport and in workplaces, and new contact restrictions for unvaccinated people. The article speculates that in England there may exist a wide-spread and intuitive understanding that life is simply better without feelings of resentment, anger, and moral superiority towards unvaccinated people which are so prevalent in the German public discourse these days. It is remarkable that discussions about vaccine passports and mandatory vaccination never gained much traction in England. On the other side of the scales, there is only a speculative benefit of the current regime compared to an alternative policy that requires unvaccinated people to get a daily test.įinally, Professor Möller argues that the approach is also unethical in that it is harmful to the vaccinated majority itself. While it is possible for the unvaccinated to end their exclusion by getting vaccinated, a liberal state must respect the choices people make with regard to their own bodies, even if unreasonable or harmful, just as it must respect its citizens’ potentially harmful thoughts or religious convictions. On the one side of the scales, imposing a lockdown on a part of the population is a most serious matter. This becomes clear when considering the proportionality of the measures and balancing the severity of the restriction against the public interest. ![]() They are imprudent because they irresponsibly stir up tensions and conflict which could easily lead to violence.įurthermore, they are unjust, discriminatory, and a paradigmatic example of a majority behaving in a tyrannical way towards an unpopular, even despised, minority. Professor Möller argues that these measures are imprudent, unjust, and unethical. ![]() Their situation is frequently referred to as an open-ended ‘lockdown for the unvaccinated’. ![]() They may only meet up to two other people at the same time (whether vaccinated or not), and in some parts of the country there are even nightly curfews for unvaccinated people. ![]() In contrast to England’s policy of treating vaccinated and unvaccinated people equally, in most parts of Germany, unvaccinated people are prohibited from going to restaurants, using sports facilities, going shopping (except for basic needs), or attending cultural events. In an essay for the German newspaper Die Welt, Professor Kai Möller has criticised Germany’s policy of excluding unvaccinated people from public and social life.
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