Danger of infiltration: Lord Mayor does not accept petition personally

On Tuesday, 19.01.2021, an alliance of Jena citizens has called for a motorcade and the handover of a petition to the city of Jena. The petition is intended to draw attention to the dramatic situation of catering establishments and tradespeople. The initiators first explicitly distanced themselves from corona deniers and lateral thinkers. This is why Lord Mayor Thomas Nitzsche announced that he would personally accept the petition.

In the meantime, there have been numerous announcements from people who can be classified as lateral thinkers and corona deniers that they will participate in the campaign. The city has considerable doubts as to whether the organizer will be able to prevent this infiltration. The Lord Mayor therefore cancels his personal participation and also recommends the organizer not to allow himself to be instrumentalized and to reject the motorcade. The Initiative Innenstadt also agrees with this advice.

The petition can be sent to the town hall, although the municipal level is the wrong addressee for the demands. The city takes the existential needs and desperation of restaurateurs and tradespeople very seriously. Federal Economics Minister Peter Altmaier has announced that the federal government's support programs will be significantly adjusted. The city has also done what it can to support the hard-hit sectors (e.g. partial waiver of special usage fees, deferral of trade tax, "Threatened lifestyles" campaign) and will continue to do so.

Intensive work is currently underway on the introduction of the Luca app, a quick and efficient means of contact tracing. This means that Jena is equipped for a quick restart in the hard-hit sectors as soon as the coronavirus regulations allow.