Landlords call for protest, night gastronomy calls for more help.
The lockdown has been extended, and it takes a particularly long time for restaurants and hotels. Nobody likes not unlocking. The situation is “in principle difficult”. But there are – as always in life – such and such: While some are holding a protest today with grave candles in their local windows, there are also hosts who say that “the corona aid actually works well”. Suppliers have a really hard time. There is still no help for them.
“There is still no help for businesses like ours as there is for gastronomy,” says Markus Wagner. He runs a brewery called Wolfsbräu in Thernberg in Lower Austria. Usually the business consists mainly of supplying inns in the Bucklige Welt and a few in Vienna with barrels filled with the barley juice.
“That stands completely, a total failure,” says Wagner on behalf of many similar companies such as bakers or meat chopper in an interview with the APA. The fact that beer can be picked up privately from the brewery or that it sometimes offers swing-top bottles in joint campaigns with inns when the inn sells take-away food is “a drop in the ocean”.
Support for suppliers who are indirectly affected by the forced closure of hotels and restaurants has been in progress for a long time. The guidelines should be ready in December, according to the announcement of the turquoise-green federal government before Christmas. However, applications for suppliers should only be possible once the application for the companies directly affected has been completed. Finance Minister Gernot Blümel (ÖVP) expected that aid for the indirectly affected companies should cost just under one billion euros.
“There's a lot of talk. You can't submit anything yet,” regrets brewmaster Wagner. It has been months before aid actually flows, he refers to the lockdowns and their extensions.
Like many restaurateurs, Wagner also emphasizes that corona rules were adhered to in the inns “very disciplined” when they were allowed to be open. Not surprisingly, he is hoping for openings soon. But there is uncertainty. “And the uncertainty is one of the biggest problems.” Although he only runs a small business, like others he feeds his family with it. Currently only he and his wife work at Wolfsbräu.
“In principle it is difficult,” said restaurateur Wolfgang Wöhrnschimmel. “But the subsidies actually work well,” says the operator of the Wolf inn in Vienna-Wieden. For him, the corona aid only took a little longer because the company structure was changed, “but everything else worked out”. Wöhrnschimmel spoke out “against the general whining”, even if the long lockdowns were already “boring”. He himself is lucky with his landlord, other restaurateurs have difficulties here. Even if you had economic problems before the corona crisis, the situation is now particularly difficult, says the restaurateur.
It now opens twice a week to offer take-away meals and employs its employees according to the requirements of the corona short-time work. “It's also about at least having contact with guests again.” Of course, some sales will be achieved again, so far the restaurant has not had a regular take-away operation.
The situation is different for a group of restaurateurs who are protesting against the lockdown these days. Under the motto “5 to 12 – We're opening again!” was called on Facebook to open this Monday – but not like outside of Corona times: Participants want to unlock the door, light their bar, put up grave candles and hang up posters of the campaign. If possible, an artist should perform without an audience. The whole thing should be filmed and published on the Facebook page of the campaign. The FPÖ supports the action, as it announced in an OTS.
Then there is also the night gastronomy, which is actually in permanent lockdown. As such, you will have to be patient for “a few more months” before you can reopen, while with normal gastronomy it will probably only be weeks, said spokesman Stefan Ratzenberger. “This means that this branch has been closed for over a year. We are therefore calling for a support package to reopen night gastronomy.” Otherwise, more than half of the local clubs, bars and discotheques could end, warns Ratzenberger.
The sales reimbursement has proven to be a real help, but it has to be extended and increased, according to the night gastronomy representative. “The cap of 800,000 euros must be lifted by the EU Commission.” Vienna is negotiating this with Brussels, as Blümel emphasized only yesterday.
