[ad_1]
Restaurants and bars now have to do without night business. However, there are numerous exceptions and trade-offs. For Casimir Platzer, the country’s leading restaurateur, everything is still wrong.
Among other things, the Federal Council allows Vaud to have longer gastronomic hours: the restaurant La Bavaria in Lausanne on Thursday.
Photo: Laurent Gillieron (Keystone)
It is part of the operational logic of business associations to speak discreetly and publicly on behalf of their members behind the scenes. As framework conditions currently change on a weekly basis and numerous industries are affected at the same time, the battle for scarce care resources has intensified in recent weeks. With the reaction to the Federal Council’s decision on Friday afternoon, it has reached a critical level.
Casimir Platzer, president of the Gastro Suisse Association, described the latest decisions as “random and implausible.” And said in all seriousness, the Federal Council wolle den SCSwiss women and scchase away the holidays for the Swiss. It gives the impression that the Interior Minister, Alain Berset, is misleading the Federal Council.
Numerous exceptions
The Federal Council announced that Swiss restaurants and bars will have to close at 7pm on Saturday. This means that important nightly affairs are lost. However, the rule does not apply in hotels that serve guests in the hotel restaurant. Gastronomy is not affected by the general closings on Sundays. On Christmas and New Year’s Eve, the curfew is only at 1 am
The Federal Council also promised 750 million francs in emergency aid for hotels and restaurants, in addition to the 1 billion in aid for emergency situations mentioned above. And finally it will numerous cantons whose curfew does not fall until 11 at night because their epidemiological situation is better than average.
“The measures are like a blockade.”
Other affected associations, such as Hotelleriesuisse or the trade association, still held internal consultations and sent press releases in the evening. Gastro Suisse, on the other hand, did a great job: While the Federal Councilors were still speaking, the association started an online broadcast of their press conference.
The exceptions that are supposed to help were only mentioned negatively. It’s a tedious part of the attention economy that the media industry is also struggling with: praise or differentiation threatens to stifle.
Protection concepts can be so good. There is no absolute protection against the virus in the restaurant industry.
Photo: Jean-Christophe Bott (Keystone)
Platzer knows it, he has been playing with him for months, stronger and more aggressively than others. On Friday, he described the Federal Council’s efforts to reward those cantons with lax rules that had worked hard in recent weeks to achieve low numbers of infections as “wild growth” and “total chaos.” He could have been happy about that too. Maybe he’s doing it in secret.
By announcing it publicly, it would take pressure off the Federal Council, which is now demanding compensation. It should be between 600 and 800 million francs a month, “immediately”. The state probably won’t pay for the full damage.
This is another point that brings Platzer on target. “The measures are like a blockade.” Due to the recommendation of the central office, there is also no money to be made at lunchtime. “We would have preferred a lockdown in this situation.”
The consideration: In the event of a total closure, restaurateurs would have better cards than now when negotiating state support. This also applies to negotiations with insurance companies and homeowners. Platzer’s accusation cannot be dismissed out of hand.
Impossible infections?
It is different with another statement. “If protection concepts are consistently adhered to in restaurants, infections are not even possible,” Platzer said. Anyone who’s been to a well-visited pub in recent weeks knows that many hosts go out of their way to ensure the safety of their guests. There is no guarantee in any way. According to international studies, gastronomy is much more likely a significant contribution to the infection process Afford.
For Switzerland, however, the data situation is poor even nine months after the outbreak of the crisis. You only know that you know almost nothing. And that is why the associations argue that no one has yet proven that their respective industry is driving the pandemic. That is why you should not “oversteer”, making the word of the moment, that is, restraining potentially innocent people.
This argument was held against reality while the Federal Council held elections. Now that you have to lower the number of infections so as not to have the intensive care units crowded at Christmas, you no longer have them.
