Carnivalists attack Lauterbach - the Minister of Health reacts with confession

Created: 12/25/2021, 3:30 PM

Karl Lauterbach (SPD), Federal Minister of Health © Kay Nietfeld / dpa

The Cologne Carnival Festival Committee has written a letter to Health Minister Lauterbach.

There is a lot of criticism and incomprehension for statements in this.

Berlin / Cologne - The organized Cologne Carnival has harshly criticized Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach * (SPD).

It was "a shame how little you, as a Rhinelander, know about the carnival," said an open letter from the Cologne Carnival Festival Committee to the Minister on Friday.

"Otherwise you would not publicly wish for the carnival activities to be postponed to the summer." Lauterbach responded by sending a short message.

Lauterbach in the criticism: "Carnival also gives people hope and confidence"

The carnival is "a festival in the annual cycle like Christmas or Easter".

"Nobody would seriously demand that all Christmas celebrations from the Christmas market to Christmas mass to family meetings be postponed to summer - not even in times of pandemics," said the festival committee.

The Rhenish carnival is "rightly" recognized as an intangible cultural asset of the Federal Republic, "because our customs consist of much more than wild parties and rampant alcohol consumption".

That this does not fit the pandemic situation is "completely undisputed".

"But the carnival also gives people hope and confidence."

Carnivalists angry: "Provide orientation where politics unfortunately fails to formulate clear rules"

“We don't want to celebrate at any price,” declared the festival committee.

The protection of health comes first - the carnivalists have proven this several times in the past few months.

And also in the current session, the clubs took responsibility and voluntarily canceled their carnival sessions.

The organized carnival is not trying to “navigate” through it.

Rather, the clubs endeavored to “provide orientation where politics unfortunately fails to formulate clear rules”.

For example, they set up rules themselves at an early stage and also took part in the vaccination campaign.

"We are not": Carnivalists demand respectful treatment

SPD * politician Lauterbach ignored this and lumped "pictures of a party mile on November 11th, which has nothing to do with carnival, with excellently organized voluntary events in the city center".

He pretends "as if all Cologne carnivalists were incorrigible Corona * deniers".

"We are not", the festival committee made it clear and called for "respectful interaction".

What is needed are “no further moral appeals, but a clear stance and support” for those at risk of bankruptcy.

"Come out of talk show mode and act like a minister," demanded the festival committee.

Health Minister Lauterbach reacts to allegations

Lauterbach responded to the allegations on Saturday.

“The Carnival in Cologne is also very important to me - especially the life of the partying,” he wrote on Twitter.

Clubs should also be able to plan.

The omicron variant of the corona virus threatens such a massive wave that carnival under 2G conditions "is probably not safe enough".

In North Rhine-Westphalia, carnival representatives agreed with the state government in mid-December to voluntarily cancel indoor meetings and events.

However, there was a dispute because the Düsseldorf carnivalists were not at the table when the decision was made.

They, in turn, had already decided in November to postpone their Rose Monday procession to May next year.

From the other carnival strongholds, there was then criticism of the postponement and going it alone.

In Rhineland-Palatinate, the Mainz Rose Monday procession was recently canceled.