The row kicked off on Monday when Bavarian Premier Markus Söder – also an influential figure nationally as leader of the conservative Christian Social Union – said he would not fully implement a law on making vaccines compulsory for health workers.

Those in the industry have until mid-March to get vaccinated or risk losing their jobs.

Söder said on Monday there would be “generous transitional arrangements” for those affected, which “de facto amounts to a suspension of enforcement for the time being.”

The selective vaccine mandate was not an effective tool to combat the Omicron coronavirus variant, he said. He has argued for a broader compulsory vaccination programme.

His comments already attracted the ire of Social Democrat Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who warned earlier this week that Söder should “take the law seriously.”

Government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner said on Wednesday that Chancellor Olaf Scholz was “assuming that laws would be abided by.”

Scholz’s justice minister, from the liberal Free Democratic Party, went further on Thursday. Marco Buschmann tweeted: “When those in government start choosing which laws to keep to and which to ignore, then tyranny is not far away.”

Vaccination for health care workers is part of a larger debate raging in Germany about a general vaccine mandate.

The issue has revealed cracks in the three-way, centre-left coalition and brought thousands to the streets in weekly protests in several cities.