‘Keuze Vrij Bij Mij’ is on the sticker that Henri van Gool from Alkmaar shows in Café Fonteyn on the Nieuwmarkt. He kindly asks if he can hang the sticker on the door, so that everyone can see that the corona pass is not checked here, which is mandatory in the catering industry from today. “We want a society in which everyone is always welcome.”
Café owner Rosa Burger calls the sticker sympathetic. “We don’t want to make anyone feel like they’re not welcome.” But putting up the sticker is going a bridge too far for her now that Mayor Femke Halsema has announced that compliance with the corona pass is indeed being checked. “Such a sticker is quite a statement.”
Tricky subject
It is a tricky subject in cafes and restaurants. In a survey by the catering association KHN, 41 percent of the catering industry says they do not check for the QR code with which visitors must demonstrate from today that they have been vaccinated or have had corona.
A stroke of luck: due to the beautiful weather today, everyone is sitting on the terrace at the Nieuwmarkt, where the corona pass is not necessary. Café Fonteyn will ask everyone who comes in for the QR code, says Burger. But for toilet visits, where the corona pass is actually also mandatory, she turns a blind eye.
Not many catering owners take up the sticker, note the activists who travel in groups throughout the city. “But little by little,” says Esther Hadassa. They fear that they will have to close for two weeks and receive sky-high fines, she says. “I understand that they don’t dare after all the blows they’ve already had.”
Test society
With the sticker, action group KVBM (Keuze Vrij Bij Mij) is protesting against the corona pass. They fear that the Netherlands will turn into a ‘test society’ in which part of the population is excluded from events and catering. “There is no medical necessity. They’re only doing it to raise vaccination rates,” says Paul Augenbroe.
KVBM is more successful on the other side of the Nieuwmarkt. They don’t know yet at Café Del Mondo whether the sticker will be hung, but the owners wholeheartedly agree with the action. In fact, they have posted their own statement on the door announcing that everyone is welcome.
Article 1 of the constitution is pasted behind the window. In short: everyone is treated equally and discrimination is not allowed. “And so we are not participating in the corona pass. We invoke article 1 of the constitution,” says owner Claudia Horstink. “We’ve been discussing Black Lives Matter for years and now I’m being forced to discriminate!”
challenge
There’s really not much to check, she says. In practice, not many people come in anyway, not even last week. There are not many tourists yet and due to the warm weather, the extensive terrace on the Nieuwmarkt is used until late in the evening. But if it comes to a fine, the cafe will challenge it, Horstink says.
Checking the corona pass would lead to endless discussions with pub-goers, they say in Café Del Mondo. But the fact that the owners are personally critical of the corona measures also plays a role. Horstink: “I can no longer look at myself in the mirror if we do that.”
For example, offering the sticker automatically leads to in-depth conversations about the corona measures, says Van Gool of the KVBM action group with satisfaction. Many stickers are not stuck there, but many catering owners feel sympathy for their action. “We are not Jehovah’s Witnesses who want to win souls. We leave them the choice.”
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