Restaurant owner publicly calls COVID certificate a 'Nazipass'

A restaurant owner who himself was infected with Covid-19 has publicly called the COVID certificate a 'Nazipass'.

Luigi Perri, who runs the The Forge Restaurant and Pizzeria in Castlebridge, County Wexford, also told The Sunday World he will not check certs when he reopens.

Explaining his stance, he told the newspaper that he "will never bow to fascism."

Mr Perri elaborated: "I don't understand why I should ask for the Nazipass, if it is absolutely not for the safety of people."

"My problem is the Nazipass... do not discriminate against anyone."

He added: "The Nazipass does not guarantee you that you do not have the Covid so I'll never ask."

Mr Perri added his belief that, as the Nazipass "does not guarantee you that you do not have the Covid", he will never ask his customers for the certificates.

When pressed about his comparison of the certificates to Nazi badges, Mr Perri said that, while it is slightly different, history "is repeating itself."

The restauranteur made headlines last month when he launched an online fundraising campaign to fight the HSE, which he said was bringing him to court for refusing to check customers’ Covid certs.

According to the Irish Independent, the campaign has already raised over €17,500.

Reactions to Mr Perri's comments on social media have been mixed: while others applauded his decision, others were more critical.

One Twitter user who disagreed with Mr Perri said: "They all help. We’re in a pandemic. It’s a one in a hundred year event. Everyone doing their best. Nutters like this man do not help."

Another simply said: "Then he shouldn’t get to reopen."

It should be noted that The Auschwitz Museum has taken great issue with people linking Covid safety measures to the atrocities committed by the Nazis, namely the practice that the Nazi party brought in that saw Jewish people being made to wear a yellow Star of David badge.

The Museum said in a statement: "The instrumentalisation of the tragedy of Jews who suffered, were humiliated, marked with a yellow star, isolated in ghettos and murdered during the Holocaust, in a debate on different systems that aim at protecting public health is a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decline."