Mayors meeting to discuss Carnival during Covid

The Security Council will discuss possible special coronavirus arrangements for the carnival period when meeting in Utrecht on Monday evening. After that, the mayors that head the 25 security regions will talk about a long-term vision for the coronavirus policy. Justice Minister Dilan Yesilgöz and Health Minister Ernst Kuipers will attend the meeting.

The mayors fear that social distancing, group formation on the streets, and closing times in the catering industry will be hard to enforce during the carnival days. Carnival celebrators celebrate arm in arm and in groups on the street. The parades have already been canceled almost everywhere, but carnival will definitely be celebrated in bars, the mayors think. Yesilgöz will discuss the situation with mayors Annemarie Penn-te Strake (Maastricht), Jack Mikkers (Den Bosch), and Hubert Bruls (Nijmegen).

According to the mayors, the Cabinet must make clear as soon as possible what is and is not allowed during the carnival days at the end of February. They also want to draw a line so that carnival celebrators do not flock to the municipality with the most freedom. Penn-te Strake represents Limburg, Mikkers is at the meeting on behalf of Noord-Brabant, and Bruls represents Gelderland-Zuid, the achterhoek, and other places where carnival is celebrated.

After the discussion about carnival, the other 22 mayors on the Security Council and Kuipers will join the meeting. The mayors have been pushing the Cabinet for a long-term vision on the coronavirus measures for some time. They want society to run as normally as possible despite coronavirus infections. They argue that society must learn to live with the coronavirus without being locked down every time. The Security Council favors the wide use of coronavirus access passes.