The German government has come under increasing pressure to explain why one of the world’s most advanced economies has failed to get a grip on the E. coli outbreak, which has seen 23 people die and 2,400 taken ill.
Different warnings, embarrassing retractions and untimely speculation about the bacteria from national agencies and authorities in Germany’s 16 federal states seem to have supplied an unnerved public at home and abroad with more questions than answers.
Ilse Aigner, German minister for consumer protection and agriculture, this week insisted that federal and state authorities were “all working together in the current situation” and that there was “no wrangling” over which level was responsible for what.