faces date over the news at live from berlin when it's decision time for germany as coronavirus numbers climb dangerously high chancellor angela merkel will address lawmakers this hour at a critical moment for the nation exhausted medical workers on hearing to limit and warn hospitals concave up if the case numbers remain this high but can german leaders get the public behind a total lockdown during the holidays as health experts are recommending.

i'm rebecca it is welcome to the program german chancellor angela merkel is due to deliver a speech in parliament this hour as the nation faces a decisive period in its fight against the coronavirus germany's regional governments are considering imposing a strict lockdown over the christmas and new year period as infection rates remain stubbornly high officials warn hospitals could be overwhelmed the country's infectious to saint diseases agency says 509000 people have died in germany from the illness in the past day marking a record high since the start of the pandemic. as we wait for that talk to take place i'm joined by chief political editor michelle occur behala thanks for joining me what can we expect from anglo michael today well reese she's certainly here to defend the budget which means 180 bill. when your is

a new debt some 350000000000 euro is to tackle this corona crisis but reading the whole nation is watching her to hear some kind of indication on whether she will once again call together the state premiers here in germany who have the say on which restrictions which degree of lockdown is implemented in the various regions to once again talk christmas because 2 states have effects of the already called off the pre christmas periods these saxony and bavaria and we're potentially going to hear from more states as we've seen a record number of deaths overnight 490 people have died and also no indication that infection rate rates are on the decline and that was the aim of that last meeting which implemented the postle lockdown which was then once again extended into january but it's simply not enough the figure is not delivering any kind of relief and the big question mark is will she give another hint that yes

there might be a full lockdown here and many well as you say this is a speech but with a lot more significance obviously this time around well actually doesn't come much more significant than the budget anyway because that's the money that's taxpayers' money but we've already seen a lot of debate because there was a word lot of instances where the budget was discussed the overarching theme is and remains that corona crisis and. lawmakers were talking just a couple weeks ago on how many will get out of this now the dynamic has changed once again as germany's heading deeper and deeper and foster and foster into the 2nd wave yet now germany had been hailed applauded really across the world for handling the pandemic relatively well things seem to have taken a turn what's gone wrong well in direct relation is still in comparison with other countries and the deaths that are now nearing some 20000 here in term the overall still doing rather to. well the german chancellor is actually on the record of

having pushed for much tougher restrictions a tougher lockdown on that was a direct recommendation from scientists who have now once again come forward and basically told lawmakers the deal paul deano group are the ones who advise the german government these are the best experts in germany saying we need to look down now and we also need predictability and an ability for the german population to plan christmas and beyond meaning do a lot down now tell people christmas is basically off the cards this year around and seeing individual recommendations just this morning again spawn the health minister asking pleading with them really not to take those christmas trips even within the country so more momentum heading and politicians dreading to have to communicate something like a full ox out here in germany of course we'll take care now to sort of repose rewards later hopefully and ahead and stay with us i want to come back to you but

we want to take a look at our hospitals here in germany and coping all over the country they're sounding the alarm as they're intensive care units reach dangerously high limits gemini's now ranked 2nd in europe for both new cases and new deaths take a look. for 3 years has been the head of the intensive care unit at the hospital in berlin they were 10 patients currently in his ward half of them suffering from a corona virus infection others have severe heart or lung diseases with this number of people his i.c.u. would has reached its limits no one patients can be admitted. visitors what is the situation is difficult because we're constantly under pressure that means the staff is under stress on the long term basis of earth and we have the problem that we cannot provide the necessary kind of care to other patients who arrive at accident and emergency. operations. so far. these

28000 intensive care beds have helped to keep the country's death toll predator low during the pandemic that could change shut the number of i.c.u. patients further increase over the winter months i mean. we can expect the influenza season to begin and patients with pretty damaged lungs are admitted to intensive care at that number to the number of mine 1000 cases and then there's a real risk of serious bottlenecks forming a very quickly him belen because according him in. this map shows the current occupation of german hospitals around the country many of them are colored orange or red as they're reaching back a passage filaments especially in densely populated areas but it's often taken. says there's a shortage of people not equipped and he has to they can beds fully equipped but with nobody to stuff them but hospitals have little or no money to hire more staff

as luck would have operations had to be postponed to keep the ward available for corona virus patients. doing 20 to 30 percent fewer surgeries and last that means we and other hospitals are currently generating a major financial deficit and that despite the extra challenge that comes from taking care of all the culvert patients or similar for the underground some corporate. to keep hospitals afloat financially the german government helped out with extra funding the clinic says that money ran out in september a political figure now he and his team are hoping for more money so that they can give their help to everyone who needs it. the situation is certainly alarming but still not quite the situation we saw for example in northern italy in the spring is the german health system better prepared well the german

health system actually has the most intensive care beds in europe so it's very well set up in comparison to other countries at the same time this is actually the moment of crisis we're seeing right now where we're seeing the 1st intensive care units saying they simply can't and can no longer cope and the real problem is that if there is no fast you those infections that take place right now as we're sitting here will hit in 2 weeks time christmas eve that's when those units are usually understaffed anyway or a lot of stuff is on holiday and that's the big fear that that could hit with full force as most peoples are expecting to have a break. or and now back to the chancellor who we're still waiting for we can see pictures of that we're saying alice vital from the speaking now we're waiting for an american to take the stage but she's expected to address a polish how much backing does she have from the german people but she has actually

almost unprecedented backing up with 3 courses. agreeing to the measures that have been taken about a quarter over would like to see tougher measures in place and the actual challenge she's been facing is in during the 1st wave we have essentially had all state premiers simply following her lead. the moment passed we had a bit of relief over the summer and now as infection rates are so different between the cost in the north which is the effected at the moment and the very a which is deeply in the red and sees infection rates above $200.00 per 100000 habitants every 7 days that's the formula germany has found that it wants to keep infection rates below 50 now this disparity is always a chance when say premise it down and trying to agree on a common line but psychologically it's very difficult for

a country to actually find common line on how to deal with covered 19 if you don't have agreement between those state premiers and there's also the fear that now that saxony is going into lockdown effectively full lockdown from monday there are concerns that with those neighboring states that now all those christmas shoppers will actually spread that infection to the next state so there's a lot of pressure psychologically but also effective in terms of containing this pandemic to find some kind of common denominator and that has been the lowest common denominator so far and experts say yes of course politicians have to decide in the end but in terms of the spread of the virus it doesn't care. about politics the dynamic is unbroken in germany death rates are going up and germany nationwide is that $150.00 per 100000 have a to which is a very high level which is difficult to maintain without going into this exponential phase effectively though that rate means germany is not in control of

this pandemic right now if it's around about 50 you can control it without overwhelming your health system but once you've completely lost control it's very difficult to get that genie back into the bottle it simply is almost impossible and that's what experts the different ways in the red flag for months wolf weeks certainly and the german chancellor is in line with that but that's the political challenge right now and there's no easy answer because everybody also knows that once you go into full lockdown it will hit the economy which has been actually recovering better than expected initially with full force once again well the economy exactly and i wanted to ask you how germany is going to cope with the immense debt brought on by the pandemic what demi is actually in a rather unique position that it's had very difficult debt going into this crisis the black 0 was seen as something of a fetish and that puts. the finance minister into of other confident position of

being able to say look we can afford this we can afford this crisis in fact even i've been around where he said this publicly even before the pandemic struck he said we can afford a crisis of the magnitude of the financial crisis now this crisis is here germany is in a position to be able to afford it but the question is who will pay for it in the end you can't afford this without debt it will it will be shifted towards future generations and that's what just right at this moment we hear at least violence in the parliament the leader of the opposition if tea party crying foul in saying that this is simply been shifted into future jenner. also getting some traction also from other parties including the free democrats or i'm ahead thank you for that stay with us will come back to you but in the meantime while we wait for the german chancellor's address let's take a look at some of the news. nearly every state in the u.s.

has reported surges in corona virus cases as well just as a vaccine appears days away from getting the go ahead president donald trump and his i'm getting word excuse me but chancellor angela merkel is about to take the stage to make her stay with us she's walking up to the podium now we can get those pictures up she's taking her mask off and german chancellor angela merkel dressed there could only. be 500000000. have been spent. we are discussing this we're discussing the new sovereign debt they will have 218000000000 euros. and $221.00 we have no debts of about $180000000000.00 euros but often a decision about taking on this level of debt is not something that you do easily and everyone in this room will be aware that for many years we didn't have to talk

about new sovereign debt we had a balanced budget. and again and again we have to be aware of what sovereignty means naturally it means that future budgets will bear the burden that we will have to pay this money back and it will maine's restrictions for free spending in the future for future generations however and that is what is important to us and that's why i'm so pleased that most people in this parliament see it that way we are living in the middle of a pandemic this is an unusual situation this is a challenge the federal public of germany has never experienced before in this forum and we must ensure that in these unusual times we act in an unusual way desperate times call for desperate measures. and

what is it that drives us that we know that germany is a strong country it is the 4th largest economy in the world an important part in every in the e.u. in nato in the e.u. and by. a liberal open democratic country. and one with social cohesion and a strong civic society and these strengths are what guide us in this budget and in this unusual time these will be our compass and we will continue and proceed with them once we have the pandemic behind us that is what is guiding us here. and no one would do this for us. the fact that we were that and little bit out again and are that day it's not enough we have to work to ensure that this can continue in the future as well and i've often said this

pandemic is something that you know most of shifts the balance of power economically and socially as well there's a really structuring here and we need to ensure that we are imbedded in global. structures and if we look at the international monetary fund's predictions we can see that not many countries have already released drug and the forecasts that we have now suggest countries like italy france britain and many others will be seeing a loss of 10 percent g.d.p. this year and then there's a group like the ass germany. we are in this middle range as well astray live 4 to 5 percent drop in. g.d.p. and then there are countries like china who have plus 9 percent of this year's well people come back in the same. virus. so that means that we need to do everything in

our power to ensure that the path of full recovery that we have experienced in the 3rd quarter after the huge drop in the 2nd quarter can continue and we should put do everything we can to ensure that the forecast that 2022 we will reach the level we were before the crisis come true. and what we always need to bear in mind is that across the globe we are seeing that business is most resilient economies are most resilient where the pandemic is under control it is not about fighting for health against education culture and the economy. both all have to be brought together and this is a complex challenge that we have to figure out every day we know more and more about the virus but we don't know everything for example we don't know how we need to respond in the winter. so that means that we have to ensure that germany

be counted among the countries who contacted this challenge successfully and i believe that the german budget will create the necessary prerequisites for this so thank you for everyone involved in the draft in this budget. i know you had a great deal of work to do after the draft presented to you by the government to cast this into law i know it was harder than it in normal times to thank you particularly for your efforts the job facing us is to mitigate the impact of the pandemic and to ensure that social cohesion be maintained as well as possible and we need to create a robust foundation for sustainable economic growth in the future and this is why we have record investment set out in our budget for 202122 and i heard the debate yesterday they were saying well government you've got the money now. spend it we

take this very seriously and there are some areas where we will have to respond more quickly the money is there and now it has to be spent because there's no economic growth just because you write it down in your budget. but we are investing intelligently in the future and it is therefore right that 750000000 year is being spent on that summation research we can all be proud that we have 2 companies in germany the one that's already in the approval faced by antec together with pfizer and hear back which is on the same basis is developing a vaccination to we're spending 9000000000 for the national hydrogen strategy to 1000000000 for artificial intelligence 2000000000 for quantum technology and for future communications 5 and 6 g. . to 2000000000 but this money has to be spent. properly.

german companies need to be able to assert themselves and global competition but of course when i say that i'm well aware of the fact that many companies in employers . and employees have had to tighten their belts significantly in the cove and make and i'm thinking about how many people it impacts on in terms of the way they live their lives personally in november we had . 2.7000000 unemployed but that is over 500000 more than we had in november 21500000 families who have real worries some fear for their jobs. but these are people who are really struggling and this is why short time work was so important for many this is a bridge and particularly regarding the efforts that we need to undertake and of every december 537000. applications were made in november alone so it

shows that this is a bridge that helps people get from one place to another and this is why we made this decision. and the aim is to help the people impacted on as quickly as possible we talked about that as well these are huge sums of applications that have to be processed and many feel it takes too long but i know that the government is working flat out and. i know that we're going to we're going to be able to increase this by 50000 years so that the help will be reached faster now these have been decisions that we've had to make quickly in terms of the restrictions in november which on the 2nd of december we had to extend but it was absolutely necessary we must do everything in our power to ensure that germany's strength isn't just retained economically it's not just about the business data but it's also about

a world wide system competition that we experience in various with various different social systems as well and the way we act is different than in countries that are more like a dictatorship of course they are. and this is why the perception of us is defined by the question of how did you get through these very difficult months and we are seen as a liberal democracy with a strong individual a society and we're proud of being not. and this is why the most important key. to them. that we have these are not. controls that we have to put in place the things we have to close but the greatest success to combat the greatest key to combat the covert 19 is the willingness of each individual to do their bit. and then. and we know that we need

clear rules and regulations and we know that not everyone will adhere to them but colleagues the facts great majority of our society have shown that they are prepared to. step back a bit from their own interests to think about the image of the others the vulnerable and to do their bit and i think that most people are aware of the fact that we are dealing with a very difficult situation and i'm very grateful for all of the efforts of every individual who is trying to do their bit. to do that. but this gratitude isn't just a soap box speech. this it isn't it's also x. something in return they expect us to take their concerns seriously and in specific terms that means that when we approve this budget we have to think of as many groups of society as possible who have. had to tighten their belts who have lost

ground in this and mixer let me begin with senior citizens ladies and gentleman and the older citizens and the very elderly in our society and we owe a great deal to the city and the pandemic is making life in nursing homes and at home for the elderly very hard the working conditions for nursing care workers are even harder than they normally find that all we have 800000 people who are being cared for in nursing homes you want in germany but we have millions of people who get. outpatient care nursing support and many others who nursed by their family members need to think of them as well 3 weeks ago i spoke to . people receiving nursing care and nurses who give it geriatric nurses and they taught to bow to. huge amount of pressure that these geriatric nurses are suffering

from because the rise of infections and nursing homes for the elderly. and senior citizens homes are increasing more and more. we would like there to be better equipment for nursing homes. but there's a great deal more that we need to do here and the light at the end of the tunnel is that. vaccinating risk groups will begin at the start of next year though i need to say right now that we need to be realistic about our approaches here in the 1st quarter 2021 which is the winter quotes or we will not have be able to undertake as many vaccinations as we would like in order to really see a significant effect in the population but we do have the opportunity to ensure that the very elderly are vaccinated that geriatric nurses and other nurses are

vaccinated and there we will indeed bring down the death rate and i'm very grateful for the federal states for preparing the ground for our vaccination centers and thanks as well to the minister of health now apart from the elderly we also have to think about utley younger members of our society we have learned from spring and said that now we will do everything we can to keep daycare centers and schools open. and we will do everything we can to keep daycare centers and schools open that in the winter months the ventilation is par for the course because of the situation we find ourselves in by the pandemic has shown some of the deficits that we're trying to overcome especially in terms of digitization and here as well from the decision that every teachers get a laptop to the. limitation that every teacher actually has their laptop they can

take months and germany we can speed up as fast as we can the money is certainly there for him next year we will launch additional education campaign then we will set up competence centers with the federal states for digital education we'll have a digital education platform not just for schools but also from occasional training and for other areas requiring education. and we have to think about families families are under particular stress and pressure. and it was therefore absolutely right that we have 15 sick days per child per parent. and 30 days per single parent purchase. is crucial so that if you don't know whether your child has a cold or has covert and whether she's sent to school or not weighing it up against work requirements as well we have to ease that it's pressure on our parents with

small children with school children. but i think we have done a good deal for families will be increasing child allowance single parents will have a double doubling of their allowance. and this means there's a bit more wriggle room for our families in terms of. their needs reflected in our budget ladies and gentlemen the pandemic isn't restricted just to germany we are embedded as members of the european union. in a challenge facing europe and the world and. germany is strong in its international partnerships and so in the e.u. presidency we were looking at what germany could do this presidency was something we had imagined would be very very different than it was and many of the plans we had could not be implemented a man is a real shame he's pushed to the. and the guiding issue or the issue dominating

everything was of course the pandemic and so i can say that we have improved in terms of our coordination in recent months we had a number of heads of state and government meeting by video conference. i would just like to remind you that our view of the incidence of 50 per 100000 as a target is now accepted across europe to a large extent and by the european health agency as well. and that quarantine regulation has also been copied in many other places as well and that in the 2nd wave we've managed to at least keep the free movement of goods going that was something that really impacted negatively on us in the 1st wave in spring and working together with the other in new member states we've managed to pass coordinate on the facts nation research it's extremely important particularly for the small in the e.u.

member states it's really good that we don't have to have 27 different contracts with the vaccine manufacturing companies but rather one for all of the e.u. and that we don't have to have a big discussion about availability of this vaccination for all of the e.u. member states. with the. latest judgment to morrow the european council will be made and i'd rather tell you what we managed to do after the fact many things are in flux. and naturally we'll be talking about the brics it. with the country tractions basis of this exit but the british prime minister is going to be visiting the president of the commission today the commission is brokering this negotiation.