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Hairdressing salon in Greifswald (archive image)
Photo: Jens Büttner / dpa
For now, no loosening, preferably no tightening.
But: beautiful hair for everyone.
Angela Merkel and the prime ministers seem to have agreed on a clear strategy in the fight against the corona virus a year after the outbreak of the pandemic: They are giving up.
As nice and welcome as it is that gray hairlines will in future shine again in blond, orange-red or dark brown and hairdressers in Germany will no longer have to work black from March 1st.
So lamentable is the fact that the members of the Prime Minister's Conference could not bring themselves to any other clear announcements.
Apparently, the country's top pandemic fighters are not pursuing a no-covid target, as requested by virologist Melanie Brinkmann, among others.
To do this, the shutdown should have been tightened.
But it is not relaxed either.
On March 3rd, the Prime Minister's Conference will meet again and discuss.
If by then the Germany-wide 7-day incidence has fallen below 35 per 100,000 inhabitants, open shops, museums or hotels are conceivable, according to the draft resolution.
After nine hours of conference marathon, the federal states were only able to agree with the Federal Chancellor on only one specific and nationwide measure: Hairdressers in Germany are allowed to reopen on March 1st.
When furniture stores and Bundesliga stadiums were allowed to resume operations after the first Corona shutdown in spring 2020, but schools remained closed, the outrage was great in large parts of the population.
Politicians seem to have learned from this that in times of need it is smart not to listen to the professional association with the strongest lobbying association behind them, but to listen to the voice of the people.
Of course, many people call for a short process for the mop on their head.
For many hairdressers, after eight weeks of being banned from their profession, it is also about their bare existence.
With their decision today, the Chancellor and Prime Minister have not only opened the hairdressing salons, but ultimately Pandora's box.
But not only hairdressers are struggling to survive.
With what argument do politicians want to ban the nail salon, the cute toy shop or the exquisite bridal shop next to the open hair salon from doing business in future?
Anyone who can safely cut their hair with an FFP2 mask would have to be able to disappear into a changing room in the small shop a few meters away without increasing the risk of infection for themselves and others significantly.
If there is no third wave by the beginning of March, we will see a wave of lawsuits from retailers and other inner-city service providers who want to be equated with hairdressers.
Probably rightly so.
With today's decision, the Prime Minister's Conference has not only opened the hairdressing salons, but ultimately Pandora's box.
If Angela Merkel and the prime ministers had hoped to put the citizens in such euphoria with the stun grenade "opening of the hairdressing salons" that they would continue to accept the closure of the rest of public life without complaint, they could have been mistaken.
In any case, Bavaria will continue with the exemptions next Sunday.
Because it's Valentine's Day, flower shops are allowed to open once.
By the way, the next day is earthworm day.
It would only be logical if garden centers in Germany were allowed to open their doors to customers on this occasion.
Ultimately, the open hairdressing salons are not just a surrender to the population's need for openings - despite all health concerns and warnings about the mutated viruses.
They are also a diversionary maneuver from the appalling lack of imagination of German politics.
Not even Markus Söder makes an effort to cover it up.
In the press conference after the Prime Minister's Conference, he alternately named the result "caution with perspective" and "perspective with caution".
Visiting a hair salon would give people back a piece of "dignity".
It sounded as if the citizens were to be compensated for the deprivation of freedom of movement, freedom of occupation and freedom of assembly with a kind of basic right to have their hair cut.
In the resolution of the Prime Minister's Conference it says: "Against the background of the importance of hairdressers for personal hygiene", open hairdressing salons are necessary, "since considerable parts of the population, especially the elderly, depend on them".
Older people are currently more dependent on vaccinations against the corona virus.
The fact that the perm will soon be back in place should be little consolation for the sometimes very long waiting time for a vaccination appointment.
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