In the end, everything is quite simple: pubs and bars in Bavaria are allowed to reopen under certain conditions, the corona rules are equated with those for foodservice. The cabinet decided on Tuesday, in the last meeting before the summer vacation.
It is a reaction to the decision of the Administrative Court, which on Friday overturned the closure of bars without food and put it “temporarily out of action”. Nevertheless, there has been a lot of speculation in the past few days: Whether Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) wants to enforce his generally strict policy? He had finally stressed on Friday that he was against a full release. How does Minister of Economic Affairs Hubert Aiwanger (FW) position himself there? After the judge’s verdict, he said it was “high time” that the pubs were allowed to serve guests after the lockdown. Will there be a “yes, but” variant? Fear germinated in the restaurant scene: “Changed a few letters in the regulation, whoosh, that’s it.”
A landlady from Lower Franconia had complained. Over time, “in particular the increased consumption of alcohol during social gatherings in numerous catering establishments has come so close to what is happening in pubs” that different treatment is no longer objectively justified, the judges said. Clubs and discos were excluded. The rules for pubs now include that the service must take place at the table, delivery and consumption at the counter or counter are not permitted. So: crowds remain undesirable, and music is only allowed to run in the background.
But what about bars that only have a counter with stools or standing room? One-room restaurants, the famous “Boazn”? In this case, the operation is “not possible,” said State Chancellery Minister Florian Herrmann (CSU) when asked about the regulation. However, their offers are still allowed outdoors, adds Söder – in addition, many restaurants have long since “reassigned themselves” to dining restaurants, he explicitly lists “sausages and lard”, as they are now served in many pubs. However, there is a tightening for the catering industry: The mask requirement for service personnel outdoors, which was recently questioned by a court, will apply again in the future if they come into contact with guests.
Aiwanger praises the pub opening “in the interests of gastronomy and customers”. It will also prevent people from holding private basement parties with the risk of infection or “keeping the police busy on the street”. The decision was made in consensus with the CSU, he emphasizes – and nothing that he had to “fight for”. Söder confirms this. The judges had, however, given the state government suggestions, conceivable “milder means” than the absolute closure of pubs: for example a ban on alcohol at certain times or new restrictions on blocking times. That had caused some unrest in the industry in the days leading up to the cabinet meeting.
The lack of dispute is surprising, however, since the opening or non-opening in the catering sector regularly triggers friction in the coalition. “Aiwanger wants to open the tap” (and Söder does not) was a headline of the SZ a year ago in July – and similarly all too often in the pandemic. On Tuesday, the coalition partners are obviously trying not to go on vacation in strife; even if Söder notes twice aside that the highest incidence in Bavaria (around 60 in Berchtesgadener Land) is probably due to a pub.
Söder rates the corona situation as a whole – incidence value 13 in the Free State – as “relatively stable”, despite an upward trend. Particularly with a view to the holiday season, one does not want to act “blindly or naively”, the country should not “stumble into autumn”. The nationwide debates about returning travelers should be “accelerated”, so Söder, he sees vacation as a “real problem”. Bavaria is planning more samples of returnees, including via veil manhunt, but no additional test stations on motorways like last summer.
The vaccination, reports the Prime Minister, is going “much more tenaciously and more difficultly” than hoped. The Free State wants to make the structures even “more flexible”, especially with mobile teams. The number of communal vaccination centers, staff and opening times will be adapted to current needs. However, the centers should be able to ramp up their inpatient capacities again within a few weeks. In Söder’s view, the “decisive incentive to vaccinate” is the return of rights, for example when attending events. Everything else cannot be justified, but it is not about vaccination pressure through the back door. Söder is confident about the Robert Koch Institute’s plan to create a system of incidences and vaccination rates. The incidence mark of 50 should probably be raised, with the exception of schools: “Is the old 50 still the new 50? In school, yes, because there is still too little vaccination.”
Söder and Aiwanger still offer a special spectacle before the holidays: reciprocal hymns of praise and expressions of harmony. Not only the difference of opinion on Corona had preoccupied the coalition over the months, but also the debate triggered by Söder about Aiwanger’s stance not to be vaccinated – moreover, the election campaign, the FW want to dispute votes in the Bundestag and the CSU. Söder thanks the FW for the successful cooperation, “certain mood swings in the coalition” or a sometimes “somewhat sporty” path or not. After the election, the nerves calmed down – everything would then be “even more serious”. Of course, says Aiwanger, he can confirm that “without thinking”. The “one or the other skirmish” even makes sense to examine issues “from all sides”. CSU and FW would have “maneuvered surprisingly well”.