It is a decision which should generate much ink within the European institutions.
Germany decided this Sunday to close its borders with the Czech Republic and Austrian Tyrol, in an attempt to contain the spread of the very contagious variants of the coronavirus.
"People who are not part of the few authorized exceptions will not be able to enter" on German territory, warned the Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer in the Sunday edition of the daily Bild.
Only Germans, people residing in the country as well as cross-border workers and professions considered strategic, such as transporting goods, are allowed to pass, on condition that they can present a very recent negative PCR test for the coronavirus.
Controls are carried out at the borders.
A thousand police officers are mobilized.
The Deutsche Bahn railway company suspended its connections with these areas and on Sunday morning the police carried out checks at the arrivals of Frankfurt airport.
Soon a border closure with the Moselle?
These restrictions were decided on because of the German government's fears of a new wave of Covid-19 contamination from the British and South African variants of the virus.
However, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Austrian region of Tyrol are considered by Berlin to be at high risk.
The Moselle, in the immediate vicinity of Germany, could also see its border controlled in the coming days, due to the significant presence of the South African variant.
"We must prevent any further intrusion as much as possible", argues the Minister of the Interior of Baden-Württemberg, a region neighboring Bavaria.
The European Union criticizes the German choice
These border measures are not to the taste of the European Union, which fears, as in spring 2020, the temptation of “every man for himself” in the countries of the bloc in the face of the pandemic.
"I can understand the fear in the face of changes in the coronavirus but we must say the truth which is that the virus will not be stopped by closed borders", lamented the European Commissioner for Health Stella Kyriakides, Sunday in the German daily Augsburger Allgemeine.
These criticisms have provoked the ire of the German Minister of the Interior, at a time when the European Commission itself is under fire in Germany for the slowness of the vaccination campaign.
" Now that's enough !
"Exclaimed Horst Seehofer in the daily Bild, the Commission" has made enough mistakes "like that" and should support us rather than put obstacles in the wheels with its advice ".
Morning essentials newsletter
A tour of the news to start the day
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
Germany has just decided to maintain until March 7 at least most of the partial containment of its population in the face of the pandemic, even if the number of infections is slowly declining.
