BSW Calls for a Thorough Review of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) in the Saxon State Parliament has accused the government of failing to adequately address the COVID-19 pandemic. Six years after the start of the pandemic, the government’s track record is sobering, said State Representative Jens Hentschel-Thöricht after reviewing a parliamentary inquiry.

BSW speaks of “political evasion”

“While millions of people have experienced massive restrictions on their daily lives, their livelihoods, and their personal freedoms, not a single study on the effectiveness of individual COVID-19 measures has been commissioned in Saxony since 2024. This is not a serious effort to assess the situation, but rather political evasion.”

Hentschel-Thöricht made no mention of the number of COVID-19 victims in the Free State. According to statistics, nearly 18,000 people in Saxony have died from a COVID-19 infection since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

In its response to Hentschel-Thöricht’s inquiry, the Ministry of Social Affairs stated that the Free State did not commission any studies on individual COVID-19 measures. However, it had commissioned a large number of studies that dealt more generally with the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the measures and their effectiveness and impacts.

Government: Relevant data has already been published

The BSW is particularly critical of the fact that the government has no plans to centrally publish relevant data, decision-making criteria, and evaluations. “If you want to regain trust, you have to create transparency.” Instead, the government claims that the relevant data is already known or has been published.

“However, many citizens still have the impression that key decision-making criteria were never fully disclosed. A comprehensible and transparent review looks different,” emphasized Hentschel-Thöricht.

In the view of the BSW politician, the impacts on children and adolescents, the psychological strain on many people, the economic damage to companies, and the consequences for social cohesion in particular deserve a thorough analysis. “If you want to learn from mistakes, you must first identify them. That is precisely what is still missing today.”

BSW Insists on a Comprehensive Review

The BSW therefore continues to call for a comprehensive and independent review of Saxony’s COVID-19 policies, it was stated. This includes the disclosure of the basis for decision-making, the scientific evaluation of the measures, the investigation of collateral damage, and political accountability for wrong decisions.

“A review is not a backward-looking debate about blame. It is the prerequisite for ensuring that government action in future crises can once again be based on trust, transparency, and scientific accountability. This trust was damaged in many ways during the COVID-19 pandemic. Regaining it remains one of the most important political tasks,” Hentschel-Thöricht explained.