Germany’s incoming chancellor Olaf Scholz ‘supports mandatory Covid jabs’ | Coronavirus
Germany’s future chancellor, Olaf Scholz, supports making vaccination against Covid-19 mandatory, German media have reported as neighboring Austria discusses how to enforce mandatory jabs from February.
Scholz, a Social Democrat who is expected to be sworn in as Angela Merkel’s successor next week, reportedly told a meeting of regional leaders that he was in favor of a cross-policy initiative to make vaccines mandatory and to demand that customers at non-essential stocks to show evidence of vaccination or cure from the virus.
“As a delegate, I will definitely vote in favor, to make it very clear,” Der Spiegel Scholz said. The outgoing Minister of Finance proposed a general vaccine mandate, which will take effect from the end of February, giving everyone a theoretical chance of receiving two doses of vaccine of their own accord.
Meanwhile, Germany’s southern neighbor Austria announced plans to make vaccination against Covid-19 mandatory among its wider population from February, after consulting scientists and legal experts.
“We did not want a vaccine mandate, let me make it explicit,” said EU and Constitutional Affairs Minister Karoline Edtstadler. “But 20 months after the pandemic started, we are in a situation that is dramatic if you look at intensive care units in hospitals.”
Only a general vaccine mandate would bring the country closer to its goal of avoiding a fifth or sixth wave of the virus, said Edtstadler of the Conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP).
Austria is halfway through a 20-day lockdown, its fourth of the pandemic, after experiencing one of the steepest increases in cases in Europe. Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg announced on November 19 that his government would pave the way for vaccination against Covid-19 to become mandatory from February 1, making it the first country in the West to take such a step.
“Of course, it represents an encroachment on our fundamental and civil liberties,” which is why the government had begun talks with the center-left Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) and the New Austria and Liberal Forum (NEOS), Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein said. The right-wing extremist Freedom Party (FPÖ), which seeks to challenge the vaccine mandate legally, was not invited.
A draft law will not be presented until the week of December 6, but several politicians have signaled that vaccination would be made mandatory but not mandatory, meaning no one will be forcibly injected.
Constitutional lawyers have recommended making vaccination compulsory for anyone over the age of 14, which is the criminal minimum age in Austria. A report in the newspaper Die Presse suggested that it could be mandatory from 12, with exceptions for those advised not to take the plunge for underlying health reasons.
Those who refuse to be vaccinated will receive two warnings, followed by an administrative fine of € 3,600 (£ 3,000), in case of non-compliance, which can be issued twice. The government on Tuesday declined to comment on the details of the law mentioned in the press.
As of this week, 67% of Austria’s population is considered to be fully vaccinated and 70% have received one dose. In Germany, 68.5% of the population is fully vaccinated, while 71% have received a shot.
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