In a “homeland pact” 31 associations – from the farmers’ association to the Munich Wiesn hosts – want to work together against unwelcome political guidelines. The official objective is to “bring together joie de vivre, enjoyment and sustainability”, as the new association announced on Friday.
The founding members include the farmers’ association, brass band association, hotel and restaurant association, state butcher’s guild, the association of Bavarian landlords and the Munich Oktoberfest hosts. The “Heimatpakt” is not only about joie de vivre but also about politics.
The diversity of society must be supported by mutual respect, demanded the chairwoman of the association, Barbara Stadler. “However, this is not always the case. Ideas and suggestions increasingly follow ideologies, are rarely discussed objectively and are often formulated as having no alternative.”
The organizers did not write in the statement against whom the accusation of “ideology” was directed. For some time now, the term has been used frequently by critics of the Greens and organic and climate initiatives, for example when it comes to tightening regulations for livestock farming or appeals to avoid meat. Anger among hosts, for example, had recently triggered the campaign for a “fair Oktoberfest”, according to which organic products should be served at the Oktoberfest.
“We are politically neutral,” emphasized Dehoga’s state manager Thomas Geppert, the second chairman of the homeland pact. “We want the feasible way and no predetermined ideologies.”