The vaccination requirement for employees in the health sector has been heating up tempers for months. Now Prime Minister Ramelow is in favor of abolition – the opposition reacts promptly.
Erfurt (dpa/th) – The opposition in the Thuringian state parliament has accused Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow of hesitating for too long when he called for an end to the facility-related compulsory vaccination for employees in the health sector. It is good that Ramelow is finally swinging on the CDU demand, said CDU faction leader Mario Voigt on Thursday in Erfurt. Voigt called on the head of government to end the demand for fines and bans on entry for the unvaccinated.
“The Prime Minister’s first step must now be to issue an instruction to Health Minister (Heike) Werner to end her encroaching attitude towards the municipalities and affected institutions,” said Voigt.
Ramelow had criticized the new draft of the Infection Protection Act and expressed his unhappiness about compulsory vaccination in the health sector. “I only went down this path because the Chancellor had assured the Prime Minister that the general vaccination order would come in a timely manner.” After the project failed, the institution-related vaccination order no longer made sense. “The federal government should finally repeal it,” he told the “Thüringer Allgemeine” (Thursday).
Criticism of Ramelow came from the FDP because of his statement that Corona rules should be decided by the state parliaments and that he expected a patchwork quilt. “The prime minister reveals a peculiar understanding of democracy. What is supposed to be harmful about the fact that the highest constitutional body in the Free State votes on questions relevant to fundamental rights?” said FDP group leader Thomas Kemmerich. Patchwork is a “consciously chosen word with negative connotations for protective measures that are adapted to specific situations”.
The parliamentary group leader of the AfD, Björn Höcke, explained that “there is no way around the fastest possible abolition of the unreasonable facility-related vaccination requirement”. He demanded an “act of civil disobedience” from Ramelow – by not waiting for a federal decision.
