Merkel’s fault I?

Germany, one of the richest countries in the world has failed to establish an efficient Covid vaccination operation. They had quite a few months to prepare and what we have is chaos. German news channels report about Israel’s efficient vaccination with envy. Germany’s federal health minister, Jens Spahn, should go. But does the buck stop with him? What about Mrs. Merkel’s responsibility?

 

Let me start by stating that I am a fan of Mrs. Merkel and have been one for many years. Indeed, right from the start, I congratulated Angela Merkel for the way she approached the Corona crisis. Merkel continues to be a one of the few non-populist leaders around. Tragically, – and yes, tragically is the fitting word – it did not take long for macho and ego-driven heads of federal states in Germany to assert their constitutional right and claim their sovereignty. They frustrated Merkel’s attempts to keep infection numbers low. This is a price the country has to pay for its democratic structures.

 

Now that we have reached the vaccination stage, a further problem has come to light: Germany’s astonishingly backward public health system. They have many wonderful hospitals, but the public health authorities are appallingly weak. Those in the know are of the opinion that they are – not surprisingly – staffed by the less competent of the medical profession. Moreover, there is almost no digitalisation to speak of. The federal government will have been aware of this weakness. It should have known that their system was incapable of efficiently handling the current emergency. An effective health minister would have established a parallel system to handle the logistics of vaccinating Germany’s population. Jens Spahn should have handled it as a military operation. Money was no object anyway. Moreover, with so many underemployed because of Covid, manpower would also have been available for the project. He didn’t. And Merkel failed to ensure that this important back to normality step was in competent hands.

 

This is, in fact, not the first time for an issue of central importance to be badly handled because of this weakness of Mrs. Merkel. In 2015, she took an emotional and ethical decision to open Germany’s borders to refugees. The decision, which she explained with her “We’ll manage” message to the German people, at first, enjoyed much public support. What Merkel failed to do was to have the hundreds of thousands of incoming migrants systematically registered upon entry. Merkel’s Minister of the Interior or someone else at her side should have ensured that everyone coming in is duly and recognisably documented. This did not happen. This caused fear of “losing control” over the country’s borders, a fear that was instrumentalised by the far-right. Much of the strengthening of the xenophobic, extremist right-wing AfD in Germany is due to this operational management failure of Merkel’s.

 

It is evident is that Merkel’s scientific brilliance and political acumen do not automatically make her a good manager. Unfortunately, there is nobody at her side to balance this shortcoming of hers. The fact that neighbouring Holland and France are even worse in their handling of the vaccination programme is no solace.