Citizens' Forum on COVID-19 advocates compulsory vaccination
The majority of the randomly selected "Citizens' Forum COVID-19" in the German State of Baden-Württemberg is in favour of a general vaccination obligation and against 2G regulations. The final report, presented by the group of 55 citizens on 27 January 2022, contains eleven recommendations.
In February 2021, the forum participants had unanimously rejected the introduction of a general vaccination obligation. In the last vote in mid-December 2021, however, 18 participants had voted in favour of a general vaccination obligation, while 13 voted against.
Against exclusion
With 16 votes in favour to 15 against, the Citizens' Forum opposes the 2G regulations that federal and state politicians consider necessary in certain phases. The exclusion of the unvaccinated could lead to the division of society. Other recommendations address issues of testing strategy, vaccination capacity and education, nursing shortages, lockdowns, school closures and social cohesion.
In the Citizens' Forum COVID-19, about fifty randomly selected citizens from all over Baden-Württemberg had spent a year discussing the measures, necessities and effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. A special feature of this citizens' forum was that the participants themselves determined the topics of the sessions. In each session, the participants mostly dealt with currently discussed topics related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts from politics, science, society and business provided impulses for the dialogue.
COVID-19 Forum Civil Society
A topic map was created as a working basis for the citizens' forum, listing key aspects and topics that participants could discuss. Interested citizens were able to add to this topic map online. There were 276 comments and 5,198 ratings.
Parallel to the Citizens' Forum on COVID-19, the ‘COVIF-19 Forum Civil Society’ met to address the same issues, but with a composition of institutions. This committee was coordinated and implemented by the Alliance for Participation. The Citizens' Forum on COVID-19 and the Forum Civil Society continuously exchanged ideas and networked.
In addition to these forums, the state government organised further citizens' forums in the border regions with Switzerland and France. The background to this was the particular burden placed on the border regions by the closed borders. One consequence of these discussions was that the state government demanded and implemented exceptions to the quarantine rules for travellers entering from the border areas.
"Thinking things through together"
"The participants of the Citizens' Forum COVID-19 set a good example of what dialogue means: thinking through and discussing a matter together. That is stimulating. And politics must allow itself to be questioned by other opinions. Without joint discussion there can be no democracy. After that, you have to take responsibility. That is where the elected bodies decide," explained Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann.
Especially in such a crisis situation, he said, it is important not to let the dialogue with citizens break down. After all, the relationship between the state and its citizens is exposed to particular challenges and strains, in which emotions boil up, impatience increases or existential fears spread.
Changes in knowledge and circumstances
According to Barbara Bosch, State Councillor for Civil Society and Citizen Participation, the state of knowledge and the facts have changed in the course of the pandemic. Therefore, the recommendations formulated in the framework of the citizens' forum must be seen in the context of the time of the respective debate and the course of the pandemic. Kretschmann explained: "Such a pandemic affects everyone, often very deeply. The aspects that have to be weighed are very complex. The mutating virus constantly creates new situations, new ignorance."
The Citizens' Forum COVID-19 had started on 16 December 2020 and had met monthly by video conference for a year. In the last two meetings on 18 November and 16 December 2021, the findings and recommendations of the forum were summarised, revised, supplemented and a final report was prepared. The final report was symbolically handed over to the Prime Minister via video conference on 27 January 2022.
Representation of the population
For the Corona Citizens' Forum, municipalities were randomly selected from all four administrative districts and divided into five size groups. Depending on the population share of the administrative district and the share of the population in the respective group, between 40 and 260 people in the selected municipalities were then contacted. A total of 2,003 people received an invitation, of whom 258 responded.
Fifty people were then selected at random from among these respondents. In addition to regional origin, criteria such as age, educational attainment, gender and migration background were also taken into account. This ensured that the members of the Corona Citizens' Forum were representative of the diversity in Baden-Württemberg. For example, 60 per cent of the members of the Citizens' Forum did not have a high school diploma or university degree, and people with a migrant background were also represented in proportion to their share of the state's total population.
For various reasons, nine participants dropped out during the course of the Citizens' Assembly. Of the remaining 41 participants, ten did not take part in the final votes or were not present at the closing session.
Statements from the relevant ministries
The state government had addressed the recommendations of the Citizens‘ Forum. The State Ministry has sent the forum statements from the relevant ministries. The State Ministry states: "Many measures to combat the pandemic have been implemented over the course of this time, many rules have been changed or abolished. Certain issues have also been partially resolved. The pandemic itself has also changed."
It was not the original goal of the Citizens’ Forum on Corona to prepare a final report, the Ministry of State explained. At the beginning, the plan was to prepare recommendations at each meeting. "Since it became apparent that the planned and later approved Enquête Commission should take into account the results of the Citizens’ Forum, a final report was prepared at the end. We would like to thank the members of the Citizens' Forum for preparing and discussing such a comprehensive final report."