Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann has expressed understanding for the outrage at the exceptions to the mask requirement on the Canada flight by Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens). “I can understand the outrage,” said the FDP politician on Wednesday in the ZDF “Morgenmagazin”.
Buschmann explained on Deutschlandfunk that the pictures gave the impression that different rules applied to the population than to “those up there”. “So it would of course be politically wiser not to make use of such exceptions, if they exist. And according to my information, Parliament will deal with it again.”
The government argues that different rules apply to Air Force aircraft than to scheduled flights, namely those of the German Armed Forces. Buschmann explained that “stricter rules” actually applied to the travel delegation because the participants both had to be vaccinated and had to prove a PCR test.
Buschmann did not address whether the general obligation to wear masks on airplanes should be abolished in the parliamentary debate on the Infection Protection Act, as some of his party are already demanding. The cabinet decision on the law was due in the morning.
