Sunday, April 26, 2020

Sebastian Münzenmaier, April 23, 2020, Government Declaration


Sebastian Münzenmaier
Government Declaration
German Bundestag, April 23, 2020, Plenarprotokoll 19/156, pp. 19313-19314

[Sebastain Münzenmaier is an Alternative für Deutschland Bundestag member from the western state of Rheinland Pfalz. He is an insurance salesman and currently chairman of the Bundestag’s tourism committee. He here responds to a general statement of government policy made in the Bundestag by Chancellor Angela Merkel.]

Right honorable Herr President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen.

After all the pacifying and prettyfication which you, Frau Chancellor, have brought forward here, I believe it is important that we once again call to mind the following facts:

First. The absolute shutdown of this country was avoidable.

Second. As the Federal government, you bear, based on your initial delays and failures, the responsibility for the extremely harsh impact upon our basic rights and our economic life. Other states like South Korea or Taiwan have early shown how, by means of rapid action and intelligent solutions, a complete running down of a country can be avoided. The actions of this government in the early phase of the pandemic are instead a singular chronicle of failure. As the first news of a new form of virus from China arrived, this government did nothing. As Wuhan was cordoned off, you did nothing. When our delegation with a motion here in the German Bundestag on February 12 demanded resistance against the spread of the epidemic in Germany, you all laughed and instead did nothing. Even when Iran for weeks was categorized as an at risk area for the Corona virus, aircraft from Tehran landed at the Frankfurt airport without problem, without tests, without quarantine measures or entry restrictions.

Health Minister Jens Spahn robustly announced that Germany was well prepared. Dear Herr Spahn, there were as a consequence bottlenecks in the supply of disinfectant. Medical practices and hospitals suffered under enormous shortages of protective masks.

            Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU-CSU): So in Italy and Spain, all’s well? 
            Ridiculous!

The testing capacity was by far insufficient. Your materials procurement efforts, by then hectic, and most of all, started too late, were marked by bankruptcy, bad luck and breakdown [Pleite, Pech und Pannen]. I myself remember for example the sudden diversion of millions of medical protective masks at some airport in Kenya. If that was your well-prepared, Herr Spahn, then you are not fit for the job.

If the German Bundestag had to present you with a work evaluation, then the best that could be on it would be “always trying” [“Stets bemüht”].

            Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU-CSU): Who has written this speech for you?

Thanks to your initial inactivity and then to the misfortunate shutdown, the Corona virus in the meantime has become a danger for our economy and for our society and is plunging our country into the greatest economic crisis which we have ever experienced.   
You slumbered through the early starting time for preventative measures and now you are slumbering through the urgently required exit from the shutdown. Daily, despairing citizens call to implore us, and before all you, to finally lift the protective measures so that they can attempt to save their once flourishing businesses and firms.

Yet you in your government declaration here make quite clear where your priorities lie. You have spoken much of Europe, of European solidarity in the area of climate defense, that you wish to relieve the world’s poor countries from the interest and amortization of debts. Where were your words for the despairing businessman? Where were your words for the restaurant trade [die Gastronomie], Frau Merkel?

Of the more than 220,000 restaurant operations in Germany, with over 2.4 million employed, one out of three is threatened with insolvency. What are you doing towards an announcement of their relief? You offer no prospect at all to the restaurants and many other branches. Instead, last night you decided to combine the value-added tax on food and reduce it to 7 percent. A tax reduction on food that cannot be sold! This is a government of experts, I must truly say! Madness!

On the whole, your relief measures are completely insufficient and marked with senselessness. One may not happen to be in the beer garden in the fresh air and under protection of distancing and hygiene rules, but one may bustle about in an over-crowded hardware store with hundreds of other people. You may be infected in a large electronics store, if it is over 800 square meters, but that is not the case in a small book shop. All of this is entirely arbitrary and pulled out of the air.  

We of the AfD demand quite clearly: Permit now to all businesses, regardless of size of area, and all restaurants and other disadvantaged branches, a complete opening under protection of distancing and hygiene rules, ladies and gentlemen. Finally give some prospect again to the many hardworking people of this country.  

But in that regard, the only thing that occurs to you, Frau Chancellor, is that you do not want – I quote – “opening discussion orgies”.  Frau Chancellor, as we all know, that is a value to which, according to your wisdom and measures taken, there is apparently no alternative. Yet I therefore want to remind you in this sovereign house: You are not Louis XIV. You do not stand above the law. And even you are only elected for a time.

You have today spoken of that – I cite with permission of the president – “this pandemic is a democratic imposition…” I say to you: The democratic imposition is not the pandemic, but this Federal government, ladies and gentlemen.

On that account, I appeal once again to you, Frau Merkel, and to the entire Federal government:

            Michael Grosse-Brömer (CDU-CSU): Now it gets embarrassing.

Finally restore the constitutional order of this country and give back to the people their freedom!

Many thanks for your attention.

            Jan Korte (Linke): That is so mega-wrong!



[Translated by Todd Martin]