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Munich (dpa / lby) - There is no general mask requirement for municipal councils and members of communal political bodies in Bavaria.
According to the Ministry of the Interior, meetings of legally prescribed bodies “as part of the state executive” are generally excluded from the relevant rules on infection protection.
In the context of the house rules and the meeting rules, the chairman of a committee could order a mask requirement for the members, said a ministry spokesman.
However, this is disproportionate and therefore inadmissible if the minimum distances can be maintained at the location of the meeting or partition walls prevent the transmission of aerosols.
In this case, only voluntary wearing of masks can be recommended.
Without state-wide regulation, the municipal councils in the Free State themselves decide on possible mask requirements - with different results.
In the Middle Franconian town of Dinkelsbühl there is no obligation to wear a mask for members, in Deggendorf in Lower Bavaria, councils must wear a face-to-face mask even there, despite compliance with the minimum distances.
In Munich, this obligation only applies to a corona incidence of more than 50 new infections within seven days per 100,000 inhabitants.
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The municipality of Jandelsbrunn in Lower Bavaria recently went one step further: According to Mayor Roland Freund, all municipal councilors had to wear FFP2 masks at their place at the latest meeting on Tuesday.
"The initiative came from me - for security reasons," says Freund.
"There was not much discussion about it in the local council."
In Dinkelsbühl in Middle Franconia, however, the majority of the city council rejected even a simple mask requirement on the square in November.
A mouth and nose covering is only required for members of the committee on the way to and from their own seat.
"There is a minimum distance of more than 1.5 meters between every city councilor," says chief office manager Thomas Staufinger.
"There is also regular ventilation."
Visitors to the council meetings are therefore also at least 1.5 meters apart.
However, other rules apply to them - not only in Dinkelsbühl: According to the Ministry of the Interior, the audience area of the meeting room is a “meeting place for public buildings”, which is why a mask is required there.
An FFP2 mask is therefore not required.
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The patchwork of the regulations on infection protection during committee meetings is no reason for criticism for the Bavarian Municipal Day.
That is "municipality self-government in the best sense, that each municipality and city determines what should apply to her," said a spokesman.
Therefore, the community day does not make any recommendations.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210124-99-146930 / 2