Incoming German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wants to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for all Germans and supports prohibiting unvaccinated Germans from entering nonessential stores, multiple outlets reported, citing an official close to Scholz.
Yahoo News reported that the official said Scholz signaled sympathy for such a regulation to begin as soon as February while at a crisis meeting Tuesday that included the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose position Scholz is poised to take over next week, according to Politico Europe.
According to Politico, Such a measure would have to be approved by the German Bundestag, the official said, adding that the mandatory vaccination could come “at the beginning of February.” Germany’s vaccination campaign is lagging behind other EU countries like Portugal, Spain, Italy, or Ireland, with only 68.5 percent of the population fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Scholz’s center-left Social Democratic Party and its two coalition partners, the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats, presented a coalition agreement last week when he also announced plans for a limited vaccine mandate for health and other essential workers.
Yet Scholz, who is due to be elected chancellor next week, is already facing pressure to impose stricter measures amid surging coronavirus cases in Germany and the spread of the new Omicron variant. Several premiers of German federal states have already spoken out in favor of mandatory vaccination,
such as Bavaria’s Markus Söder who said Sunday that it was “the only chance” to end the pandemic. Stephan Weil, premier of Lower Saxony, told public broadcaster NDR on Tuesday that “mandatory vaccination will save us from having thousands of people fighting for their lives in intensive care units again next winter.”
