Saxon
Landtag, Plenarprotokoll 7/24, pp. 1597-1599.
Right
honorable Herr President. Right honorable ladies and gentlemen members.
The AfD
delegation has called together the Saxon Landtag for a special session so that
this parliament of the Saxon State government be commissioned to end the
lockdown of economy and education and the disempowerment of the citizens’ basic
rights. This special session is necessary; for while the lockdown policy’s
irreparable damages increase with each day, the Chancellor and the Minister-presidents
this afternoon are consulting on an extension of the lockdown and in the Bundestag
already on the day after tomorrow shall additional facts be created. The
epidemic situation of national scope shall, without scientific basis, be
perpetuated.
While the
irreparable damages of the lockdown policy increase with each day, the
criticism from economy, science and medicine becomes ever louder. These are
your critics, Herr Kretschmer! It is not only the AfD politicians. Listen to
the economy, to the science and to the medicine!
Already in
the summer of last year, critical scientists had expressed doubt as to the
sensibility of driving down public life and the economy. The Federal and State
governments have ignored or excluded these voices. “Conspiracy theorists”, “Corona
deniers”, “Covidiots” – these were the verbal instruments to bring the critics
to silence.
Meanwhile,
statistical data are however put forward which verify the sceptics and make
clear how false was your policy of the past months.
First, adjusted
to the demography, that is, in view of the increasing aging of our society,
there is in Germany in 2020 no excess rate of mortality.
That Saxony
is an abject exception needs to be ascribed to you and your policy. The
so-called Corona pandemic has led to no increase at all in the rate of fatalities
except in poorly led Federal states.
Second,
according to the German Hospital Society – a quite populist association – at no
time was there a real overburdening of the intensive care capacities, even if
that was specifically the case in some clinics. The comparison with countries
with or without a hard lockdown – Sweden and Switzerland, which like us have a
similarly over-aged society, various U.S. states – indicates no conspicuous
distinction in regards the numbers of deaths and in regards the hospitals’
utilization of capacity. States without a hard lockdown, which had concentrated
on the strengthened protection of at-risk groups, have come through the Corona
year better than Germany.
The decision
to fight Corona with prohibitions was a political one. Other countries have sought
other ways. Every week now are new studies published which show: Your Corona
preventive measures, your occupation bans, your events prohibitions, your
visiting and going-out bans, were at no time necessary and had no significant
influence on the occurrences of infection. They have caused only damages.
The
restrictive attitude of the Federal government and of the State governments at
the beginning of the Corona epidemic is excusable; no one conclusively knew how
hazardous to health or indeed how deadly the virus is. Yet today, in view of
the receding infection numbers – which have nothing to do with your prohibitions,
Herr Kretschmer – in view of the worldwide receding infection numbers, the ever
decreasing utilization of intensive care, in view of the part-time employment
in non-utilized hospitals, your policy is just irresponsible.
If the
destruction of occupational livelihoods, the destruction of schooling, the
destruction of the psychic health of many citizens, are apposite to no clearly
acknowledgable uses, then the question must be put: What is the purpose of your
obstinate maintenance of the prohibitions? Is it so difficult to say: We have
overestimated Corona? Or: The Swedish way was the better? Is that so difficult?
Or is it still only about the face-saving of the politicians responsible for
this disaster?
If it is only
about the political result, I say: Proceed just so! Make the AfD the lone voice
of reason which takes seriously the care of the economy and of the citizens.
Yet here it is not about the success of the AfD. Here it is about the future of
our children and grandchildren. It is about the future of our healthcare system
and about the rapid as possible reconstruction of bürgerlichen basic rights.
We therefore
urge a rapid end to the state of exception and therefore the Saxon Landtag comes
together here today in special session. Here and today, it is about averting
further damages from our State.
Meanwhile,
the medical profession quite openly criticizes the negative effects of your
Corona policy: Depression and suicide of older people due to job loss, due to a
lack of social contacts and through loneliness; increasing numbers of deaths
due to spreading heart attacks, seizures, cases of cancer recognized too late; and
increasing cases of domestic violence, primarily against children. Already in
the past year have pediatricians presented a clear increase in such cases. Meanwhile,
around 70% of doctors report of Corona-conditioned traumas amongst youths.
We therefore
demand: A situation in which schools and day-care facilities are closed for
weeks and months may no longer be in Saxony, not only for the people’s health
but also for the Saxon economy. The consequences of your Corona policy, driven
by the gavel, are meanwhile catastrophic. The German Retail Federation warned
in January that six of ten businesses in the hotel and lodgings industry stand
before insolvency. With the extension of the lockdown over Easter announced by
Herr Kretschmer, the prospects for these businesses could not have been
improved.
The payment
of the pretentiously announced Corona assistance proceeds so sluggishly that
many companies and businessmen still today await the November assistance. We
therefore demand with our motion [Drucksache
7/5673] today that Corona-conditioned economic aid meanwhile finally be
paid, automatically and without delays. The unemployment amongst youths and
young adults has increased about 22% due to your Corona policy. Since November,
Saxon businesses have reported 150,000 cases of part-time work for employees. These
are people who are not allowed to work and whose pay replacement by the state
is financed for months by tax money and debts. These are people who no longer
can pay back a portion of their credits, who have been forced into poverty, who
do not know whether their company after Corona will still continue at all to work.
Who actually
pays for the indirect damages to the economy of your Corona policy, for the
lack of work due to quarantines – even for employees without symptoms – and the
lack of work for mothers and fathers who must care for their children at home?
How many orders are lost to firms because the supply chains have been broken or
because personal contact with business partners or with customers has been
severely restricted? Each further week of your lockdown policy causes economic
damages to a sum of 3.5 billion euros. This nonsense must be most quickly
ended.
As the most
important yet false instrument of your Corona policy, you have chosen the
so-called incidence value. This value meanwhile is under massive criticism from
medical and scientific experts and the WHO. All public health doctors in Berlin
just recently declared that the incidence value does not portray the real occurrence
of infection. Have the public health doctors suddenly become Corona deniers? –Surely
not.
The incidence
value is the number of positive PCR tests per 100,000 persons. It includes
infected persons yet also such as those for whom only fragments of virus have
been detectable and it also includes false positive tests of persons completely
free of the virus. The incidence value is not suitable for describing the occurrence
of infection and it is exactly so little suitable to make prognoses on the
utilization of intensive care.
With our
motion we want that in the future the evaluation of the Corona situation be
oriented to reliable criteria. Thus, as meanwhile demanded by many doctors and
scientists, this should in medical practice be, first, the utilization of
intensive care situations and, second, the number of patients with viral
infections.
In addition,
we demand that all possibilities be exhausted for the improvement of the
protection of at-risk groups: Better financing of care-giving, required taxi
fares for the ÖPNV [public transport]
tariff, free rapid tests in all relevant areas as well as free postal delivery
of masks for these persons. When this is implemented, then can the CDU also save
itself minutes of silence for the victims of your health policy. Then is also
possible an immediate end to all restrictions of freedom and a return to
normality.
Right
honorable ladies and gentlemen of the governing parties. Right honorable
ministers of the Saxon State government. In the last twelve months you have lost
much of the citizens’ trust; be it by unkept promises or “with today’s
knowledge, no more retail trade would be closed” – Herr Spahn – be it by means
of ignoring ones own proscriptions – Frau Köpping and Herr Kretschmer – be it
due to the meanwhile broken promises that there would be no direct or indirect
compulsory vaccination, notably for a new vaccine, the duration and
compatibility of which are still not known.
Today, with
this special session, you have the opportunity to recover a portion of the citizens’
trust. Let us in common end the months-long standstill! Let us again have a
social, economic and cultural life! Let us in common create the parameters
which make our healthcare system fit, not only for Corona but also for similar,
future stressful situations. Vote for our motion. Don’t do it for us, do it for
the welfare of our State and its people.
Many thanks.
[trans: tem]
