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Fireworks in Warnemünde (archive image)
Photo: Thomas Häntzschel / dpa
German fireworks manufacturers make a large part of their sales, around 95 percent, in just a few days - at the turn of the year. But this year it should be different again, according to a regulation initiated jointly by the federal and state governments. The idea behind this: a ban on firecrackers would ideally result in fewer people being injured, and the burden on the health system, which was heavily burdened in the pandemic, would be at least minimally relieved. Environmentalists, police unions and doctors had previously spoken out in favor of the ban.
The branch association of the fireworks industry doubts the effect and has now announced that it will take legal action against it. As soon as the ban, which was confirmed by the Federal Council on Friday, is legally binding, the Federal Pyrotechnics Association will file an urgent action against it, according to board member Ingo Schubert. The association also supported various lawsuits against the burning of fireworks in Bremen, Hamburg and Saxony. Industry representatives spoke of a situation that threatened the very existence of the company.
The legislator argues that hospital capacities must be spared, which is why accidents due to improper use of fireworks should be avoided.
But the Pyrotechnics Association contradicts: "There is still a lack of valid data that could be used to verify that a significant proportion of the injuries on New Year's Eve are caused by approved fireworks," explained Schubert.
"New Year's Eve fireworks approved for the German market are subject to strict legal requirements, which means that serious injuries can practically be ruled out."
Ban last year
Schubert spoke of a "black day for all people who care about fireworks as a New Year's Eve or profession."
This question is "about more than fireworks: with a symbolic political ban, the governments of the federal and state governments are squandering the trust of citizens."
This is "worrying because politicians urgently rely on trust in the measures to cope with the corona pandemic".
There was already a sales ban last year due to the pandemic.
According to the association, lawsuits are still pending in the main proceedings against this ban.
The association pointed out that the Lüneburg Higher Administrative Court had overturned a burning ban for the state of Lower Saxony last year.
Dispute over plant closure in Saxony
Industry representatives demanded more support from the state than just bridging aid, should the firecracker ban persist. "We expect politicians to compensate for the loss of sales," said Thomas Schreiber, the owner and managing director of Weco, Europe's largest fireworks manufacturer based in Eitorf in North Rhine-Westphalia, of "Welt am Sonntag". "It would be difficult for us to survive another year if any compensation on the part of the government were only based on the previously known economic aid."
Weco has announced that it will close its plant in Freiberg, Saxony, at the end of the year.
The company justified this with the ban on firecrackers.
Union officials had questioned this statement: “That would have happened if it hadn't been for this sales ban.
They just wanted to part with the location and only continue to operate the two locations in the old federal states, "said Klaus Wirth from the industrial union for mining, chemicals and energy to the" MDR ".
Industry faces ruin
The Association of the Pyrotechnic Industry (VPI) complained that with the new firecrackers ban, companies in the industry remained practically without income for the second year in a row.
"Politics is currently driving the entire industry into ruin," said VPI managing director Klaus Gotzen of "Welt am Sonntag".
The federal government had again promised state aid for the industry because of the ban - but it will probably be less than in the previous year.
The industry could credit storage and transport costs that were incurred from December 2021 to March 2022, said a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Economics of the "Welt am Sonntag".
In the previous year, the state had reimbursed these costs from December to June - four months longer.
For the industry, the current regulation would mean a deterioration.
chs / AFP