Members of Parliament, councilors or other representatives of the people do not have to show a corona ticket in, among other places, catering and cultural institutions if they have to be there professionally. This is what Minister Ferd Grapperhaus (Justice, CDA) writes in response to emergency questions from SGP Members of Parliament Kees van der Staaij and Chris Stoffer.
In the run-up to the municipal elections, the SGP members signaled an accumulation of incidents involving politicians who have not been vaccinated or who reject the use of the corona pass in principle. At the beginning of last month, PVV and 50 Plussers were announced in Den Bosch refused in a cafe where the kick-off of the local elections was held because they showed no corona evidence. Similar incidents also took place in Cuijk and Nijmegen.
According to Grapperhaus, those politicians should not have been refused, according to his answer. Wherever the QR pass is now mandatory, this does not apply to politicians because an exception has been made in the ‘Temporary regulation measures covid-19’ for everyone who “carries out professional or commercial activities”. That also applies to public administrators and representatives of the people, as well as to journalists, according to the minister. “So the temporary arrangement does not entail any restrictions for them.”
Uncertainty
According to MP Stoffer, there has been a lack of clarity about the practice of the temporary Covid law for too long and people have been “wronged by asking for such a corona pass, where that is not allowed at all”. He refers to an affair in Limburg where two States members, from PvdD and FVD, wanted to attend a meeting of the confidential committee about a new king’s commissioner. It was organized in a catering facility where a QR code was requested, which they did not want to show. They weren’t allowed in. “While they should not have been refused at all,” said Stoffer. They were able to catch up with the proposed candidate outside, in the rain. They refused.
Also read: Questions about corona pass lead to conflicts with local politicians
In the answer, Grapperhaus also states that the QR pass may not be requested in neighborhood or community centers. Alcohol may even be served without a vaccination certificate, as long as it concerns “private and organized daytime activities for vulnerable groups”, the minister writes in his answers. But according to Stoffer, the corona pass has also been requested on a significant scale in neighborhood and district centres. “It is good that the minister is now clarifying. But that took too long. The QR card has been wrongly requested too often.”
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