Half sanction in Germany to a law that strengthens the …

German Parliament passed law strengthening Chancellor Angela Merkel’s power (Photo) to impose restrictions in the federated states of the country and deal with the onslaught of the third wave of coronavirus. The law provides for the immediate imposition of a curfew between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., the closure of recreation centers and shops and the suspension of sporting events. in regions with more than 100 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants per week. Schools must close and switch to distance education in states where the same contagion rate is greater than 165. Before the session, thousands of unmasked citizens unhappy with Berlin restrictions.

The new law, which provides for the automatic imposition of severe restrictions when an area reaches a high case rate, was passed thanks to votes by Conservatives and Social Democrats, allies in the governing coalition. In total, 342 deputies voted for, 250 against and 64 abstained. The rule will now go to the Federal Council, the upper house, where it will be voted on Thursday and its final sanction is taken for granted.

Before the vote MP and Health Minister Jens Spahn told lawmakers: “Vaccinating and testing is no longer enough to break this third wave”. Spahn assured that the new regulations will help “avoid an overload of our health care system, an overload that many of our neighbors have already experienced with pain.”

The automatic activation of this resource will end tensions with the regions, whose leaders have softened and sometimes even ignored the strict measures decreed by Merkel to stop the contagion by covid-19. Not far from Parliament, from the Reichstag, some 8,000 people gathered to protest against the bill, most of them without masks and without keeping the recommended social distance to avoid contagion.

Police cracked down and halted the march with tear gas and fire hydrants after establishing that the organizers were not respecting basic sanitary measures. “There are people out there, in the streets of this city, who say it’s okay and almost nothing is happening. Yes, it does happen: 80,000 people have died in this country and I don’t know that cannot be ignored “said the vice-chancellor Olaf Scholz in Parliament.

While a large majority of the population is in favor of tougher measures such as closing shops and restaurants or limiting people-to-people contact, only 51% of Germans approve of national night curfews according to a recent poll by public television ZDF. Faced with resistance from the population and some opposition forces, the government relaxed its initial plan to ban departures between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. and proposed a curfew that will now begin at 10 p.m. Hours.

Merkel’s team don’t consider banning curfew idea altogether, since he sees it as “a sign of the dramatic situation in Germany and that the government takes it seriously”, as the Minister of the Economy Peter Altmaier summed it up. The country recorded 24,884 new cases of coronavirus and 331 deaths on Wednesday. In the midst of the third wave of covid-19, Germany is racking up more than 3.2 million infections and 80,793 deaths.