German Chancellor Angela Merkel faced opposition to a plan to seek new powers to force coronavirus lockdowns on areas with high infection rates, with the imposition of curfews drawing particular fire given the country’s authoritarian past.

Reiner Haseloff, premier of the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, said it was more important to motivate people to cooperate in order to get infections under control rather than banning them from leaving home at night. “If no one cooperates anymore, then we have a problem. Then it doesn’t matter how many laws we make."

Georg Maier, interior minister in Thuringia, also expressed concern about imposing night-time curfews, saying it would be hard for the police to enforce them in the whole region.