In an interview on RTL on New Year’s Day, the Minister of State Xavier Bettel has clear words for the statements of various vaccination opponents and vehemently opposes the comparison of the crime and murder of 6 million people with the current Covid-19 situation.
Demonstrating is a right, stresses Xavier Bettel, but what happened in the city on 4 December is unacceptable to him. Not because people were standing in front of his private house, but because there was a call for hatred and violence.
The demonstrations last month had shown that there was also a right-wing radical scene in Luxembourg, and that the people the police arrested were not from abroad, but from here.
Like the Minister of Justice Sam Tanson, the Prime Minister has also announced legal action against one of the faces of the protest movements against the Corona measures. Jean-Marie Jacoby tweeted on Christmas that Sam Tanson and Xavier Bettel would have been sentenced to death by hanging at Nuremberg in 1947. A call for violence that will have repercussions.
Threats, insolence and insults are no longer unusual for the Minister of State. He is confronted with such situations every day, but he is not prepared to back down. The measures would not be withdrawn because of the threats. He has a responsibility to the whole country and takes it very seriously.
“There are only common answers to common problems,” says the premier, who is convinced that we will never get out of this situation if everyone only looks after themselves.
On 5 January, the three designated ministers Yuriko Backes, Claude Hagen and George Engel will officially take up their responsibilities in the government, which will then decide whether to introduce compulsory vaccination in Luxembourg as well. A decision that will be taken in the middle of January. The prime minister has already asked in a letter to the Chamber last week to organise a consultation debate at the beginning of January.
Xavier Bettel says he personally has been dithering for a while, but doesn’t want to be the one to put the brakes on. If the government decides in favour of compulsory vaccination, he himself is not in favour of starting with the health workers, but with the vulnerable, and then going down according to age. Exactly how far is still one of many questions that need to be clarified.
In the RTL New Year’s Day interview he also talked about his plagiarism affair. He does not know when the University of Nancy will communicate. However, he emphasises that he would not have wanted to change his professor at any time. He calls on the people not to condemn the former student Bettel but the present prime minister Bettel and the work he is doing.
As far as his own political future is concerned, he assures that he will once again be available to his party as a top candidate. He is full of energy, even if the last weeks and months have not been easy. He still very much enjoys his work.
You can also find the Replay in sign language on RTL Replay.
The Grand Duke and Grand Duchess also wish you all the best in the new year 2022.
