Pupils in Bavaria must continue to wear protective masks in the corridors of the school buildings and in the classrooms. “We couldn’t agree on a relaxation today,” said Minister of Education Michael Piazolo (Free Voters) on Tuesday after the cabinet meeting. He thus conceded that the Free Voters in the coalition with the CSU could not get their way with their demand that the mask requirement be abolished at least in elementary schools in the Free State from next Monday. The debate about easing the mask requirement remains on the cabinet’s agenda, said Piazolo.
On Monday evening, the Free Voters parliamentary group sent out a self-confident press release, the subject of which gave the impression that the CSU had given way in the coalition dispute over the Corona rules for schoolchildren. “Masks are compulsory in elementary schools by March 14 at the latest,” said the headline of the message. In it, FW parliamentary group leader Florian Streibl was quoted as saying that the regulation should also “be abolished promptly” in secondary schools. The mask requirement in schools is “now out of date,” argued Streibl, also because it “stands in stark contrast to the discotheques that have just reopened in the Free State: a mask requirement does not apply to their visitors”.
There were some malicious reactions from the opposition
Head of State Florian Herrmann countered this view with the view of the CSU. You can’t compare schools and discotheques, he said. After all, there is “no obligation to go to a disco, but compulsory schooling”. However, Herrmann cited the debate about the future legal framework for anti-corona measures, which is currently being discussed at federal level, as the main argument for the veto of the CSU. In February, the federal and state governments had decided that on March 20th “all more far-reaching protective measures would be dropped if the situation in the hospitals allows it,” the decision says literally. The Bundestag wants to discuss a corresponding law, and a federal-state meeting on the further course of the pandemic is also planned for the coming week.
It made “little sense” to decide something shortly before the federal-state meeting that would then become obsolete again, “it only leads to confusion,” said Head of State Herrmann about the cabinet’s decision on Tuesday not to allow any further easing of the lockdown to decide on existing corona restrictions. There is no reason for “hectic movements,” said Herrmann. What the state government decided on the other hand: That the regular corona tests should be continued both in schools and in daycare centers, initially until the Easter holidays, which start on April 11th in Bavaria. The tests should continue to ensure the safe operation of schools and kindergartens, it said. In addition, vulnerable groups must be protected as best as possible. According to the cabinet decision, the test systems should continue to be provided if the federal government does not create a new legal framework so that tests can also be made mandatory after March 19th.
With a view to the mask requirement, which will remain in schools for the time being, there were sometimes malicious reactions from the opposition, especially from the FDP, which had also spoken out in favor of easing. “Minister of Culture Piazolo cannot assert himself in his own department,” tweeted Matthias Fischbach, education policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group.