Don't push me! Merkel erupts at EU vaccine backlash as glacial rollout condemned

Earlier this week it emerged the German Chancellor encouraged the blocking of a bid by four European health ministers to secure large orders of the coronavirus vaccine last year. Instead, the countries handed over authority to the European Commission to ensure a central approach was undertaken. But the EU has been heavily criticised in recent weeks, as the bloc faces a shortage in the supply of coronavirus vaccines.

The EU is also being condemned over the slow pace of national vaccination programmes.

Criticism was heightened in Germany, with the country is headed for an election later this year.

But Mrs Merkel has responded to critics and argued Germany and the EU are taking the right approach.

During Tuesday’s press conference, where she announced an extension to Germany’s national lockdown, she said having high numbers of vaccinated people in Germany without the same in neighbouring countries “would not be to Germany’s benefit”.

Mrs Merkel is also understood to have fumed at the recent criticism levelled at the EU’s vaccine procurement.

During a meeting between the federal government and the prime ministers of the 16 federal states, the German Chancellor made an ominous comment.

She said: “If I ever unpack the mistakes that were made by this round, if I were to make it public…”

During last night’s press conference, Mrs Merkel continued to defend the joint EU vaccination effort, including Health Minister Jens Spahn’s involvement – who is emerging as a popular candidate to succeed her.

She said: “I supported the health minister in every phase of this. And I think the process was quite right.

JUST IN: Merkel backlash: Letter claims Chancellor BLOCKED vaccine order

It comes after a leaked letter shows Mrs Merkel personally intervened in the vaccine debate, by stopping German, French, Italian and Dutch health ministers from ordering more stocks of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine last summer.

German newspaper Bild published the document from the four European health ministers to Ursula von der Leyen, where they agreed to hand over control of vaccine orders to the European Commission.

In doing so, they stopped attempting to order more stocks of vaccine, despite having already secured 400million doses of Oxford University’ Astra-Zeneca vaccine.

The four ministers had tried to get enough vaccine doses for all Europeans.

The newspaper claims the letter was written under pressure from Mrs Merkel, who wanted to send a signal of solidarity at the start of Germany’s six-month EU presidency, which started in July 2020.

The four ministers wrote: “We believe that it is of utmost importance to have a common joint and single approach towards the various pharmaceutical companies.

“We also consider that speed is of the essence in this case. So we deem it very useful if the Commission takes the lead in this process.”

source: express.co.uk