The next German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, is in favor of mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 for German citizens that could start in February, a source close to the politician told Politico.

He showed support for the measure during a government crisis meeting on Tuesday.

The measure would need to be approved by the Bundestag to be enacted, the outlet reported.

Austria recently announced a similar measure that is supposed to be implemented around the same time.

Countries are hesitant to implement such measures. Anti-vaccine and lockdown protests have taken place when similar measures have been implemented.

The effort to implement a vaccine mandate in the U.S. for businesses with 100 or more workers, or face weekly testing, has been met with criticism from some businesses, states and workers. The mandate is now blocked by the courts.

The White House has indicated that vaccine mandates work to curb the spread of the COVID virus and has continued to push to get remaining unvaccinated people vaccinated.

Germany’s vaccination campaign lags behind other countries in the EU like Portugal, Spain, Italy and Ireland. Germany’s population is only 68.5% vaccinated, according to Politico.

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Coronavirus Germany European union