People queue in front of the vaccination center against the Covid-19 disease at the 'Arena Treptow' in Berlin
Credit: Michael Sohn / AP
Coronavirus Article Bar with counter ..
Angela Merkel is facing demands to abandon her policy of solidarity with the European Union and order a national supply of coronavirus vaccine for Germany.
Mrs Merkel is to hold crisis talks with vaccine manufacturers on Monday as Germany seeks to chart a way out of the EU vaccine debacle.
After days of anger and finger-pointing attention has shifted to the way forward, but life has not got any easier.
Her coalition partners turned on her handling of the crisis, and Germany’s highest-selling newspaper published a list of demands ahead of the talks. Bild newspaper called for “National bulk orders of the best vaccines worldwide, if necessary in parallel to the EU — matter the cost.
Because you cannot blame the EU for every mistake forever!” Germany has already started making additional purchases outside the EU mechanism, and has ordered 30m extra doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Vaccination rates in the UK and the EU
Bild also joined left-wing polticians in calling for wartime-style forced production of the vaccine, with manufacturers ordered to issue compulsory licenses to rivals, but Mrs Merkel’s government is unlikely to go that far. But she is facing pressure from her coalition partners, the centre-Left Social Democrats (SPD), who turend on her in a clearly coordinated offensive.
Michael Müller, the mayor of Berlin, sent Mrs Merkel an open letter calling for a national vaccination plan “so that we don’t lose any more time and now set the right course together.”
“Everything possible needs to be done to ensure we can vaccinate people faster,” said Carsten Schneider, a party bigwig But calls for Germany to go it alone on vaccine orders prompted nervousness from other European countries.
Esteban González Pons, a prominent Spanish MEP, warned of “the emergence of a vaccine nationalism” and “nervousness” in Germany, “a country that is key in the manufacture of vaccines, but lags behind others in vaccination because it arranged the purchase with the rest of the EU”.
Credit: AP
Mr González Pons, who is vice-chairman of Ursula von der Leyen’s European People’s Party (EPP), said she and the European Commission were being made scapegoats by national leaders who are happy to chalk up successes as their own and “leave the Commission helpless when criticism arrives”.
In Italy, where the government has previously expressed disquiet at Germany’s independent orders, there was relief that AstraZeneca has said it will be able to increase the supply of vaccines, though there will still not be nearly as many as originally promised. Initially promised 8m jabs before the number was cut to 3, Italy is now promised 4.6m by the end of March.
“At least it’s a sign of good faith,” commented Corriere della Sera newspaper. Elsewhere there was support for the beleaguered manufacturer. “How AstraZeneca is now being reviled is shameful,” Leo Neels, the former head of Belgium’s pharmaceutical trade association told Het Nieuwsblad newspaper.
The Netherlands’ De Telegraaf focused on British coverage of the row, accusing the Daily Mail of “going wild” on prime minister Mark Rutte and the EU.
There was support — of a sort — for Mrs von der Leyen and the European Commission from an unexpected source. Viktor Orban, more usually seen as highly critical of the EU, struck a conciliatory tone.
“We agreed that Brussels should negotiate on our behalf with Western manufacturers,” he told Hungarian public radio.
“We made this decision. There’s no use crying over spilt milk now. This is the situation.”
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