Kubicki calls for "personal consequences" from Lauterbach
Has the Ministry of Health exerted pressure on the Robert Koch Institute during the corona time? This is what FDP deputy Kubicki accuses Minister Lauterbach of, along with having an "irresponsible attitude towards the truth". Kubicki has also made several demands.
After the publication of unredacted documents about the meetings of the corona crisis staff at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), FDP deputy and vice-president of the Bundestag Wolfgang Kubicki has demanded personal consequences from Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach. In a long text on his website, Kubicki takes a stance on the so-called RKI files. He has examined them, particularly the period from January 2021 to spring 2022. In light of the papers, Kubicki accuses the SPD health minister of telling lies.
The documents have not yet been released by the RKI itself. A group around a journalist, who counts among the critics of the federal government's corona policy, had reportedly received the documents from a source at the institute, uploaded them to the internet, and also presented them at a press conference. The RKI stated that it had neither checked nor verified the data sets. The institute intends to publish its protocols at a yet-to-be-named time, according to statements by Lauterbach.
The papers show what the crisis staff discussed at its regular meetings during the corona time: current infection figures, international situation, vaccinations, tests, studies, or containment measures.
Kubicki sees political influence on the RKI
In Kubicki's view, the published documents show political influence from the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) on the RKI strategy, for example regarding the corona risk assessment. The RKI artificially kept the public pandemic pressure high at the BMG's urging, writes the FDP politician, and links this to the planned corona vaccination obligation, which ultimately did not find a majority in the Bundestag in 2022.
In his letter, Kubicki confronts the health minister with his statement from this March, in which he said that the RKI had worked independently of political instruction. "Karl Lauterbach has caused serious damage to the reputation of the federal government through his irresponsible attitude towards the truth and has sown doubt about the integrity of state action. He must draw personal consequences." Kubicki does not mention the word resignation.
Not the first Kubicki attack on Lauterbach
This is not the first time he has suggested such a step to Lauterbach in connection with corona. At the beginning of 2023, there was a dispute within the traffic light coalition about the health minister's pandemic policy. "An honorable resignation would not be blamed on Karl Lauterbach," Kubicki wrote at the time on Facebook. He sharply criticized the corona policy of the past years, which he said had failed particularly in the case of children and the elderly. Children had had their life chances taken away with conscious fear-mongering, and the elderly had been treated inhumanely in old people's homes. In his current contribution, the FDP deputy demands that the various dimensions of the corona pandemic must be urgently worked out parliamentarily "to avoid future mistakes and to heal societal wounds". He links a possible future participation of the FDP in another traffic light coalition with the SPD and the Greens to this condition.
The Robert Kubicki, an FDP deputy and vice-president of the Bundestag, has accused Minister Lauterbach of exerting pressure on the Robert Koch Institute, implying potential political influence on the institute's strategic decisions during the corona crisis. In his letter to Minister Lauterbach, Kubicki questions the health minister's statement from March claiming that the RKI had operated independently of political instruction.
