The most important issue facing Germans as 2022 begins is the same as a year ago: the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is one key difference: Back then, the upcoming vaccination campaign still gave hope that the end would soon be in sight.
But one year and well over 100 million vaccine doses later, the number of new infections in Germany is substantially higher than it was at the start of 2021.
In order to get more people to get vaccinated, the government could soon implement a universal vaccine mandate. That would mean politicians across the board would be guilty of breaking a promise, with former Christian Democrat Chancellor Angela Merkel, her Social Democrat successor Olaf Scholz and Free Democrat leader Christian Lindner, now finance minister, all previously ruling out such a move.
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COVID and diplomacy will challenge the German government in 2022 | Germany | News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 01.01.2022
