Merkel calls for new lockdown as her final act in power

ANGELA MERKEL called for a new coronavirus lockdown in Germany yesterday in what may be her last significant act as chancellor.

“We face a highly dramatic situation. The rules we have are not enough,” Mrs Merkel said. “We face a situation that will surpass everything we have seen before.”

Infections are soaring and hospitals across Germany warn they are running out of space in intensive care units.

“By the end of winter, pretty much everyone in Germany will probably be vaccinated, recovered or dead,” said Jens Spahn, the health minister, in a hard-hitting press conference.

But Mrs Merkel’s chances of securing a new lockdown look slim in the face of opposition from the incoming government. A new coalition under Olaf Scholz has made clear it does not want any more lockdowns. It will not renew an emergency law empowering national and regional authorities to order lockdowns when it expires on Thursday.

Mrs Merkel will step down when the new government is sworn in – expected to be in two weeks. She appears determined to press for a new lockdown in her final act as chancellor. But as a caretaker without a majority in parliament, her ability to impose one is limited.

Yesterday, she reportedly urged regional leaders to rush through lockdown measures before the emergency law expires. She told senior party figures at a meeting of her Christian Democrat party that infections are doubling every 12 days and people had not grasped the seriousness of the situation.

Mr Scholz, who is still locked in final coalition negotiations, has said little so far in public but has promised to review the government’s policy on Dec 9.

New rules drawn up by his incoming government and approved by parliament come into force this week.

They include giving regional governments the power to restrict large areas of life to the vaccinated, and requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test on public transport and at work.

Bavaria and Saxony have already moved to impose local lockdowns in the worst affected towns, and several states have imposed wide-ranging restrictions that amount to an effective lockdown for the unvaccinated.

Two of Germany’s most influential regional leaders yesterday called for the jab to be made mandatory in a joint article for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “A vaccination requirement is not a violation of civil liberties. Rather, it is the prerequisite for us to regain our freedom,” Markus Söder and Winfried Kretschmann, the regional leaders in Bavaria and Baden-württemberg wrote.

A new opinion poll for Spiegel magazine published yesterday found 70 per cent of Germans now support mandatory vaccination.