The SPD has proposed leaving the pandemic work-up to randomly selected Germans in citizen councils. Health Minister Lauterbach supports this and expects a positive evaluation of the corona policy. The initiative is absurd: a serious analysis can only take place in parliament. Now Germans are expected to work up the corona pandemic themselves. What initially sounds like a joke is seriously considered in the traffic light coalition. Last week, SPD parliamentary leader Rolf Mützenich proposed the establishment of a citizens’ council, in which randomly selected people would “share their experiences with the pandemic” and develop recommendations for the future. The results are then to be discussed further in a commission that has not been named. The Greens and FDP were generally open to the idea.
The proposal is outrageous. Instead of systematically working on pandemic policy with scientists in parliament, this complex task should be delegated to a small group of citizens. These would then have to assess, based on personal anecdotes, which measures were proportionate at what time. A simply absurd idea that shows how much the SPD fears a serious work-up and is trying to shift responsibility. The traffic light coalition had already appointed a citizens’ council last year, deliberately opting for the harmless topic of nutrition. After five months of work, the panel presented its most important demand: free lunch in schools and day-care centers. The traffic light coalition thanked the participants profusely for their commitment. Later, they explained that free lunch was neither the responsibility of the federal government nor financially feasible.
For the work-up of the corona pandemic, a citizens’ council is now to be set up again, with federal health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) supporting the proposal. In a recent interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, he made it clear what result he expects: The citizens’ council will show once again how great the approval was during the pandemic, according to Lauterbach, a sentence that can hardly be surpassed in ignorance. Instead of a symbolic alibi event, the traffic light needs to ensure that the work-up takes place in parliament. This task will certainly not be easy. To this day, scientists argue about the meaningfulness of the measures, the fronts are hardened. Vaccine critics want to hear that their skepticism was justified, lockdown supporters want the certainty that lives were saved.
In the end, no work-up, in whatever form, will be able to do justice to everyone. And yet it is absolutely necessary. To show that politics takes seriously the wounds that the pandemic has left in the population. That it is willing to admit mistakes. But it seems that the traffic light coalition lacks the courage to do so.
