Cabinet – Munich – Change at the top of the State Office for Health – Bavaria
Munich (dpa / lby) – After just over a year, there is another change at the top of the Bavarian State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL). The physician Prof. Christian Weidner takes over from Walter Jonas, who becomes regional president of the Upper Palatinate. “He is not only an expert on the LGL, but also, as a doctor, an accomplished expert on risk assessment, for example,” Bavarian Health Minister Klaus Holetschek (CSU) praised the 50-year-old on Tuesday in Munich. Environment Minister Thorsten Glauber (Free Voters) sees Weidner as an “extremely competent new head of the authorities”.
Weidner, who studied human medicine and physics and most recently headed the staff department at LGL, will take over the helm on February 1, 2022. On this day, Jonas succeeds Axel Bartelt, who is retiring, and takes up his post as regional president of the Upper Palatinate. The cabinet decided on Tuesday. Jonas had been the head of the LGL since August 2020 and President since November 2020 – he had taken over the office when the older head of the authorities, Andreas Zapf, had to move to the Ministry of Health at short notice.
The LGL has recently been criticized for calculating the corona incidence broken down by vaccinated and unvaccinated. At its core, it is about the question of whether it is legitimate to add people with an unknown vaccination status to the group of unvaccinated – even if these now make up a very large part. Jonas had repeatedly defended his authority’s approach from a professional point of view.
The Landtag FDP called Jonas a “pawn” on Tuesday. In government circles, however, it was emphasized that the procedure for filling the two government president posts has been going on for a long time. Because there is another person: Also on February 1st, Konrad Schober will be the new district president of Upper Bavaria. Schober, who last worked in the Ministry of the Interior, succeeds Maria Els, who is retiring.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 211221-99-468869 / 3