Anne Will is probably the most important Sunday political talkshow in Germany. Yesterday’s episode featured a gaggle of obnoxious guests, who had clearly been assembled to warn against any loosening of Corona restrictions ahead of the minister-president summit today. Among them was Hendrik Wüst, minister president of Nordrhein Westfalen (CDU), who at one very revealing point explained why he thinks we need to mandate vaccination:

The purpose of mandates, is so that we can signal to those who have done everything right in the last two years—who have gotten vaccinated, who have been cautious, who have had themselves tested, who wear masks—that now it’s down to those others who have thus far refused, so that we can all get a bit more normality back—step by step, and certainly no return to lockdown next winter.

When Will, clearly puzzled, asked him to clarify, he doubled down: