Oktoberfest cancellation due to energy crisis?

Mayor Reiter: "I don't know what we could save by doing this"

Created: 07/16/2022, 12:55 p.m

By: Mike Eder, Sebastian Arbinger, Klaus Vick, Phillip Plesch, Uli Heichele

Older people report increasing problems for them in Munich.

In an interview, Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter commented on the allegations and on the Wiesn.

Munich - Our mailbox is overflowing, the phone is running hot: Hundreds of readers contacted the editorial team after we reported on the problems older people in Munich have - from the fear of Radl-Rambos to stumbling blocks to MVV trouble .

Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) now joins the debate.

He came by for an hour and a half interview, in which he also explains how a huge party like the Wiesn can still take place in these times.

Munich's Lord Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) speaks to our editorial team about the situation of pensioners in Munich and the Oktoberfest.

© Markus Goetzfried

Lord Mayor, how do you rate the situation for senior citizens in Munich?

I believe that we do a great deal for older people.

However, what the individual reports have certainly described correctly often has nothing to do with what we do as a city.

It is important to me that older people in Munich are not left alone!

For example, 32 old people's and service centers are a unique network throughout Germany - you won't find that anywhere else.

But of course, much of what upsets readers upsets me every day.

I don't find it funny either when a bully bike speeds down the sidewalk at 35 km/h.

But I don't think that one can therefore say: Munich forgets the older ones.

How satisfied is your 92-year-old mother with your politics?

My mother is quite a critic sometimes.

At the beginning of my first term in office, she told me a lot of things that she missed – such as chairs in the pedestrian zone.

Now there are many of them.

But my mother also says that life in Munich is getting more and more expensive, and can't I do anything about it?

Pensions have increased very, very little over the years.

But it is not the city that decides on the pensions, but the federal government... In addition, like many other older people, she is sometimes worried about going out onto the street because an e-scooter or a bicycle could dash from the right and left on the footpath.

It's hard for me to take that worry away from her.

Because we also have a lot of car traffic, but there is the feeling that this is regulated.

Drivers obey the rules to a greater extent than cyclists or e-scooter drivers...

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Mayor Dieter Reiter on e-scooters, public toilets and digitization in Munich

Keyword e-scooters: Many of our readers are annoyed by scooters, which are often driven wildly and parked wildly.

There have recently been specially marked parking zones.

how does it work

With this system, the charges continue as long as the user does not park the e-scooter in a specially marked area.

If you don't park properly, you can't end the rental and get a high bill.

This is increasingly working, the situation has improved.

But we'll look at that over the course of this summer - and if it doesn't work, then next year we'll think about further limiting the number of e-scooters.

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Many readers say that there are not enough public toilets...

I get that, and we're building more.

However, new toilet facilities, for example, have to be barrier-free and planned, which takes time.

Dixi toilets are just a quick and easy solution.

We currently have 125 public toilets in Munich.

But I say: You can't have enough.

Muenchen.de and an app also show where there are toilets.

An app - also a topic... Some older citizens are afraid that they will be forgotten in the course of digitization.

What can you do there?

This is extremely difficult for us on the administrative side, since we want to digitize many processes.

But we must not forget the elderly in any kind of modernization.

I'll give you an example: There were recent considerations to removing the validators, i.e. the stamp machines, from the MVV.

Of course, that would have been the end of the stripe ticket, everything would then only have been done via cell phone.

But with my voice there will be no such thing, because that would affect the older people.

They say: One mustn't forget the old people.

Munich: Digitization and lack of personal contact to the detriment of older people?

Some of them have already been forgotten - for example when you see how appointments are made at the KVR, which is almost exclusively electronic now...

This is also due to the fact that in the past two years we had to ensure that everything remained as contactless as possible because of Corona.

Instead, before the appointment was made, there were long queues - and these are now almost only found in the area of ​​the immigration office, where there is an emergency counter.

I have recently received a lot of positive feedback on KVR.

The perceived truth of many older people is different.

Many readers have written to us that the authorities lack opportunities for personal contact.

Hardly anyone can be reached by phone, often you only end up with a tape announcement.

How do you see the situation?

In fact, there are such cases.

It also happens to me myself that I get stuck in a telephone queue at an authority - as a citizen with a request.

Something like that gets on your nerves and we try to avoid it or – if it does happen – to improve it.

But it must also be said that we are a large administration with many different responsibilities.

Mayor Reiter in an interview: Energy shortages and rising prices - does an Oktoberfest fit in there?

The most important issue for many Munich residents is heating.

The public utility company has recently increased gas prices twice in a short period of time - and some experts are saying that the prices for suppliers could rise three to five times again...

...and that might not be the end of the story.

In order not to leave the elderly and people with low incomes alone, we as a city have now decided that we will help here.

The public utilities have packed 20 million euros into an energy fund that is used to cushion cases of particular hardship.

In the long term, however, it will definitely remain a problem, because according to current forecasts, the markets may not relax again until 2026.

So how does it fit in times of energy shortages, rising prices and the threat of poverty to host a huge party like the Wiesn?

It's not a new situation.

Pensioners have been asking themselves this question for decades and did not know what to live on until the first of the month.

After all, the federal government has recently decided on a significant increase in pensions, but at the same time inflation is unfortunately also rising.

I also understand the fundamental question: Why are they partying if I can't afford it?

But that's a socio-political question, and it's not just an issue for older people.

I see the task of the public sector as cushioning the financial area that is now arising from this energy crisis as much as possible.

But you don't save on big parties?

I don't know what we would save by doing that.

But I know that all the taxi drivers and hoteliers for whom the Wiesn is an important source of income would be up in arms.

So it shouldn't be viewed in such a shortened way.

There are also thousands of jobs involved.