As a “master of compromises” and “best negotiator in Germany” Angel Merkel does not cope with Covid, who does not compromise and does not negotiate

The German Chancellor Angela Merkel introduced a hard Easter Lockdown, and after 33 hours he canceled it. At the same time, the next large corruption scandal involving members of the ruling party is unfolding in Germany, and the vaccination is inhibited by the sudden suspension of the supply of the Astrazeneca vaccine and the replenished ranks of the anti -type of anti -type. At the request of Medusa, journalist Dmitry Vacedin described what Germany enters the third wave of Pandemia of Coronavirus.

Early in the morning on Tuesday, March 23, the Angel Merkel, tired and not sleeping night, announced the introduction of an additional and hard mini-Locadun in Germany-on Easter holidays from April 1 to 5. Residents of the country had to sit at home: even grocery supermarkets were planned to close even about four of these five days - there were no such prohibitions. By this “hardcore” Lokdown, the authorities hoped to “knock down” the third wave of Pandemia.

Spring in Germany usually begins quite early, and traditionally Easter holidays here is a time of tourism, mass events and leaving winter hibernation. The Germans were also upset by the idea of ​​the total Lokdown because it was Easter that politicians used to be called as a kind of landmark, speaking of the terms of possible renewal of active social life.

Easter Lokdown looked like a very unsuccessful idea not only from the point of view of common sense, but also from the point of view of law. In such a bureaucratic country as Germany, it is impossible to declare several additional days off literally from day to day - this is a legally unbearable task.

The Easter Lokdown was not an sole decision by Angel Merkel: by the morning of Tuesday, he was supported by all 16 chapters of German lands, consultations with which continued most of Monday and most of the night. But already at a press conference on Wednesday, Merkel, canceling this decision, took all the responsibility for herself. “This mistake is entirely my mistake,” the Chancellor said.

The announcement of the New Lokdown and its instant abolition look like a logical continuation of the German authorities to combat pandemia - about its failure in the media and German society, it seems that consensus has been established.

One of the reasons for the failure is called incorrect prioritization. Thus, most of the discussion between Merkel and the heads of regions, which eventually led to the announcement of the Easter Locksu, concerned only one topic - tourism. On the eve of this meeting, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs lifted the restrictions on trips to the Spanish resort of Mallorca, beloved by the Germans, and tens of thousands of Germans immediately bought tickets for Easter holidays there.

At the same time, the Germans who returned from Mallorca according to the new rules do not even need to sit in quarantine - and this is in the conditions of a complete ban on intranes tourism and the deepest depression in the tourism industry. The German regions demanded equal conditions - why feed Mallorca when you can feed your resorts? As a result, almost the entire discussion came down to tourists, and other important issues like vaccination remained in the shade.

And the most important quality, Superlane Merkel - her ability to negotiate and find compromises - obviously did not work when solving such a specific problem as a pandemic. “If you have the best negotiation master on the planet, then it is useless during the pandemic, because the virus does not negotiate,” Der Spiegel formulated this.

The decision -making strategy during many hours of consultations between Merkel and the heads of regions caused the Germans of the Association with closed meetings of the Politburo. The post on the Facebook of the Olympic champion of Katarina Witt, who wrote: "A little devil whispers to me:" With a return to the GDR "." At the same time, the strategy turned out to be completely ineffective, judging by the number of new infections with coronavirus, which is continuously growing since February. And, as Merkel herself put it during negotiations with the heads of the regions, “she has nothing in her hands” to stop this growth.

The apology of Merkel and her willingness to take responsibility, although they were positively appreciated by German society, but many of her motives considered it rather selfish: in September, Merkel will leave the post of chancellor and now, obviously, sought at the cost of his own reputation to bring his part of the CDS and their Bavarian COSS , which are experiencing the most difficult Helmut Kolya.

Since the end of February, one corruption scandal after another has not subsided in the Bundestag - the majority is associated with the kickbacks that the CDS/CSS deputies received in 2020 for mediation when concluding contracts for the purchase of protective masks by German state bodies and private companies.

The accusations of lobbying for the interests of Azerbaijan by deputies of the Bundestag, including the former ones, for example, Mark Hauptmann from the CDU, also added to these accusations. He handed over his mandate immediately after the appearance of information in the press about how he attached to the newspaper laudatory articles about Azerbaijan. However, according to Spiegel , he could also be involved in fraud in the purchase of masks. The amount of rollback is almost a million euros. Similar exposures appear in the German press in March several times a week.

The former favorite of the Germans, Minister of Health, Jens SPA, also fell under the blow. Its ministry purchased protective masks from Burda GmbH, the Berlin representative and lobbyist of which is the husband of Shpan Daniel Funke. Direct accusations of corruption have not yet been put forward, but the press considers this transaction at least suspicious.

Representatives of other companies who tried to sell masks to the Ministry of Health indicate that those companies that did not have any acquaintances in the ministry did not even receive a formal answer. Regularly receiving news about how “hand washes”, the Germans turn away from the CDS, the party’s ratings are angel Merkel in polls predictably fall.

The only salvation for the party could be successful vaccination - but even here everything is not very smooth. “For one of the largest economies in the world, with the maximum investment of state funds in healthcare, with the state control of the main medical capacities - and these are three criteria for success - this is a failure,” explains Meduza Berlin political scientist Dmitry Stratievsky, “we are now in the level of complete vaccination at the population at about the same level with Romania and Estonia. Ahead is Portugal, Lithuania, Greece, and all these countries are much poorer than Germany. ”

To the lack of vaccines and general inconsistency - the authorities prohibit the use of the Astrazeneca vaccine, then after a few days they resolve again - new problems are added. Distrust of the authorities, panic articles in the press, the lack of incentives for vaccination or coercive mechanism for it led to the emergence of a huge number of “spontaneous” anti -inferiorities.

According to Tagesspiegel, only in Berlin about 300 thousand inhabitants ignored the invitation to vaccination - and this is in the context of the extreme deficit of vaccines. The mechanism for the transfer of unused vaccines more motivated to use people does not work yet, and the vaccine remains in warehouses.

As often happens, the most accurately German political realities are described by satire. “The virus also has pride, and the German authorities want to use this quality,” writes Postillion, the German version of the site of the comic news of Panorama . “Consciously showing incompetence, taking and immediately canceling the decisions, the German authorities hope that the virus will regret Germany, fulfill sympathy and chase more interesting prey.”

In any case, having canceled the hard Easter Lockdown, Merkel did not offer another way to fight the third wave of the virus. In addition to one: Easter tourists returning from the Mallorca will now still have to present a negative cord at the airports at the airports.

Dmitry Vacedin