"Comments surprise me": Mayor Reiter counters Corona alarm from Lauterbach - and defends the Wiesn

Created: 2022-10-12 3:59 p.m

By: Lucas Sauter-Orengo

Many people also came together during the Oktoberfest 2022.

© Ralph Peters/Imago

The Oktoberfest has been history for a few days, the corona numbers are increasing rapidly.

Karl Lauterbach (SPD) recently reacted with concern to the situation in Munich, Mayor Reiter is now countering the allegations.

Munich – It was to be expected from the beginning, now it has happened: After the Oktoberfest, the corona numbers in Munich are increasing rapidly.

The situation in the clinics is also tense in the Bavarian capital.

Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) sounded the alarm via Twitter as a result of the latest developments.

The minister even spoke of a “self-made catastrophe”.

Now the Munich Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD) reacted to the allegations.

Munich: OB Reiter reacts to allegations by Karl Lauterbach - with clear words

"Mr. Lauterbach replied to my explicit request in April whether there could be access restrictions that there are no legal options for this and that none are to be expected for autumn," said Reiter on Wednesday.

It was therefore not possible, as von Reiter said he preferred, to only let newly tested visitors onto the festival site.

"The federal government and the Free State did not have the courage to create the conditions here." In addition, Lauterbach "made it clear several times that he saw no hard, resilient reason to cancel the Wiesn."

Dieter Reiter (SPD), Mayor of Munich, defends the Oktoberfest 2022. © Matthias Balk/dpa/archive image

Munich: Corona wave because of the Wiesn?

Dieter Reiter defends Oktoberfest implementation

"In this respect, I am surprised by his current statements," Reiter criticized his party colleague.

Lauterbach had recently criticized several times that there had been no tests in front of the beer tents.

Regarding the current corona situation in Munich - the city has one and a half weeks after the Oktoberfest with 1481.3 one of the highest incidences in Bavaria and clinics are reporting problems - said Reiter: "I said in the run-up to the Wiesn that I have to assume that the number of infections will increase significantly after the Wiesn.

That has happened.”

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They have been discussing “possible short-term solutions for days – for all clinics that have to guarantee emergency care” and will support the municipality “as far as this is possible”.

In addition, Reiter emphasized that the situation was not only tense in Munich and Bavaria, but throughout Germany.

That puts the topic "Wiesn wave" into perspective.

Bavaria is currently the federal state with the second highest incidence in Germany, even far from Munich and Oktoberfest, the incidences in the Free State have increased significantly.

In and around Munich, however, there was a particularly strong increase around the time of the folk festival.