Government Meeting

 Yesterday, Monday, was the big meeting between Chancellor Merkel, her advisers, and the sixteen Premier-Presidents (governors of the 16 German states).  The topic was Covid-ban-rules and where things go.  

A month ago, it was generally expected to be a pleasant meeting....last six hours, and a number of rules were to be relaxed....nationwide.  Cafes, restaurants and bars were expected to re-open....at least in some form (maybe limited to out-of-doors).

Well....things dragged on.  Around 9:45 PM....the Channel One/Two public TV folks said they were ready to interrupt TV coverage and give you the press conference with the Chancellor.  So folks kinda waited.

It wasn't until 2:30 AM that the smoke cleared and the Chancellor could walk into a press room and give a 20-minute update on the ban-rules.  

Based on what I've seen this morning (around 7 AM)....the Chancellor looked awful tired and run down.  The ban-rules?  It's probably more fragmented than at any point in the past year.  There's a huge amount of frustration with the German travelers who've gone off to the Spanish isle of Mallorca, and politicians believe they need to be put into isolation upon return, or forced to do a couple of days of quarantine.  They could not come to an agreement on how to handle this crowd.

So, the basis or results of this all-day meeting (11 hours)? (I should note here....this started shortly after a late-lunch.)  

Starting next Thursday, and running through Easter weekend (to include Monday)....a 'super-duper' shutdown is ordered.  All commerce is halted, and visitors to your house is super-restricted.  

Another four weeks of standard Covid-ban-rules continue on....till the 18th of April.  Shortly before that....another Merkel meeting will occur, and they will decide if things can be relaxed.

What happens Easter weekend?  I would suggest that some dramatic counter protests will occur on Saturday....in several German cities, and it'll require a massive police presence.  There were a fair number of Germans who were expecting Easter weekend to be the 'release' point of the ban-rules, and things would start to return to normal.  The numbers, however, don't allow for that.  

I should also add this segment of what is coming to the weekend.....temperature predictions are near 14 C (57 degrees F), with decent weather in the majority of the country.  So if you were going to demonstrate....it'd be in your advantage.