Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) wants to hold on to the German border controls. However, the Federal Police has initiated a special rule on Mother's Day.
- The inner European borders have been tight for several weeks.
- Because of Corona - pandemic several states had allowed at short intervals only necessary border crossings.
- Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer wants to continue to hold the border controls . But now there is resistance - even from your own party.
- Here is our Corona Virus Reporting Guide *, the Sars CoV-2 Basic Facts *, the Falling Numbers Map * for Germany * and our “Corona News” * on Facebook.
Update from May 10, 7:07 a.m .: Germany has relaxed the strict rules at the borders for a day. The occasion is Mother's Day , on which you want to enable visits. According to dpa information, the federal police decided that a visit to the mother on this Sunday is a valid reason for entering Germany.
For weeks now, only those who have an important reason can enter the country. These are, for example, truck drivers, members of the medical profession or commuters from the border region.
There are also stationary border controls at the borders with Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Austria . "The information given during the entry control must be credible and verifiable," said the federal police on Sunday.
Border debate: Hofreiter tackles Seehofer - "Finally submit a plan"
Update of May 10, 8.25 a.m .: The Green Group is now putting pressure on Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) because of Germany's border controls in the corona pandemic * . The ongoing closings "burden families, civil partnerships and working people in the border regions just as much as the flow of goods in the common internal market," parliamentary group leader Anton Hofreiter told the newspapers of the Funke media group .
Hofreiter asked Seehofer for a plan to open the border. Seehofer "must finally present a plan for the border regions that combines freedom of movement and health protection so that the border crossings can be opened again as soon as possible".
Border debate not only about Austria, but also about France - Laschet is also putting pressure on Seehofer
Update, 1:41 p.m .: Armin Laschet (CDU), Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, is now also demanding that Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) lift border controls on France. That should - contrary to plan - take place before May 15, as he told the Stuttgarter Zeitung. Looking to France , he said: "The lockdown ends there on May 11th - that would be a good time to signal to our neighbors that we are striving for a common European response to the pandemic ."
A country that has not closed its borders is Sweden. Some action critics praise the Swedish special way. However, there are also signs of severe economic damage there. And the question remains: are the two countries comparable at all?
Corona virus at the borders: MEPs call for changes across borders
Update, 11:16 : Twelve members of the Bundestag and the f ranzösischen National Assembly calling for a joint appeal not to extend the closure of borders between Germany and France, as the AFP reported. The effects on the citizens are "more than borderline", the restrictions "now separate like an artificial cut, which have created decades of cross-border cooperation ." Since the virus has been everywhere, efforts have to be made to take cross-border measures .
On May 9 is Europe Day celebrated - he erinert on 9 May in the year 1950, when the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposed in a speech to set up a production Coal and steel used in the creation of the European Coal and Steel flowed out. This was the cornerstone of today's EU .
We usually celebrate #Europatag with festivals and events. This year virtually - under the motto "Europe lives solidarity". Be there on Saturday at https://t.co/koJbbGRCPj: You can expect many promotions and you can win great prizes. We look forward to seeing you. pic.twitter.com/JpzXRVTDMA
- European Parliament in Germany (@EPinGermany) May 7, 2020The pressure on Horst Seehofer is growing.
Coronavirus border controls: Careful anticipation for Mother's Day in the border region
Update from May 9th, 9:33 am : As the BR reports, residents at the border crossings to Austria can now look forward to "careful opening of the borders" at crossings of the Kleinwalsertal towards Allgäu and at the small German corner near Salzburg . From the Austrian side , the health checks at the Allgäu-Kleinwalsertal transition are to be abolished. For the crossings to Salzburg, "family-oriented border controls" are planned especially for Mother's Day on May 10th.
Coronavirus · Border crossing Germany - Austria near Aschau / Kufsteinerland
© dpa / Peter Kneffel
Meanwhile, Florian Herrmann (CSU) , Minister of State for Federal and European Affairs, said at the request of the BR that the controls were still “necessary and essential” and that only gradual relief would be conceivable in the near future.
Meanwhile, the Neue Züricher Zeitung (NZZ) comments that the border closures are currently doing “more harm than good” - there is no evidence that closed borders would slow the spread of the virus since local infection sites were no longer an issue. The politicians from the border regions know how people suffer from " traffic jams, passport controls and other harassments ", writes the NZZ, and they sometimes even know about new old resentments that are reviving, for example, between Germans and French.
Coronavirus: Austria wants the borders to be opened immediately
Update 12.50 p.m .: Austria wants the border to Germany to be opened - apparently immediately. Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) increased the pressure on the federal government again on Friday: The borders could be opened "as soon as Germany is ready", he emphasized in Vienna.
At the same time, critics of the corona-related border closings intensified the pressure on Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) . CDU parliamentary group leader Andreas Jung referred AFP on Friday to an opinion of the renowned Constance European law professor Daniel Thym, according to which a continuation of the border closings "is to be classified as illegal".
Jung is one of the co-authors of a statement by twelve CDU Bundestag and MEPs who, in a letter to Seehofer dated May 5, called for the borders to be opened at least to Austria and Switzerland . However, the latter rejected this request on Thursday (see below).
Even ten chambers of commerce around Lake Constance in Germany, Austria and Switzerland require rapid border openings. "No day on which the health policy situation allows a return to economic normality can be given away now," says a statement published in Constance on Friday. The measures taken in all three neighboring countries to contain the pandemic were successful in substance, albeit at the cost of a substantial standstill in economic and social life.
Coronavirus: Austria is considering opening the border
Update of May 8, 11.30: The opening of the border between Germany and Austria moves to the conviction of Austria's Chancellor short Sebastian closer. The infection rate is currently lower in Austria than in the Federal Republic. "Therefore, I also assume that the border with Germany will open before the summer," said Kurz at a video conference with representatives of the hospitality industry on Friday in Vienna.
The government also exchanges with its German partners almost every day . A border opening is not only important from tourism point of view, but also for many families , by the border controls were separated at the moment. The same applies to commuters and all those who simply have to travel for professional reasons. Merkur.de * has compiled an overview of the rights and obligations regarding the border restrictions with Austria .
In the midst of the increasingly loud calls for border openings on all edges of Germany, CDU General Secretary Paul Ziemiak pleads for a common approach in Europe. "A uniform approach within the European Union would be the most important thing," he told the editorial network Germany . "We have a different situation at the German borders. When I think of the German-Polish border, for example, it would be important to me that, for example, medical personnel from Poland can come to Germany for work. ”
Coronavirus: people demonstrate for border openings
Update 12.50 p.m .: The protest against the closure of the EU borders is getting louder. For an immediate end to the German border controls on Luxembourg and France and the reopening of all crossings, people are now taking to the streets. In Echternach, Luxembourg, a protest is planned for Friday from 12 noon , at which around 50 regional political representatives from Luxembourg and Germany are expected. "We want to express how difficult the situation is for us at the moment: Not only for all cross-border commuters, but also for cross-border friendship," said a spokeswoman for the city of Echternach, which lies on the border with Germany.
An action is also planned in the Palatinate on Friday from 12 noon: To set a sign for a united Europe and Franco-German friendship, politicians meet at the currently closed bridge between the German Scheibenhardt and the French Scheibenhard.
Chancellor Minister Helge Braun (CDU), meanwhile, is advocating that Germany should step in line with its neighboring countries when it comes to opening borders . "The beginning of these border controls was that business was up in Germany and no longer in the neighboring country and then there was a lot of movement because people then came over the border to shop," said the CDU politician on Thursday on Deutschlandfunk . An “overcrowding of the inner cities”, which has the consequence, we “just don't need”. However, border controls at the European internal borders are "always only with good reason and for a limited time".
At the same time, Braun warned of too much relaxation in terms of socializing and traveling . "If you look back, you can see that the great contagion risks lurk there."
Corona virus: criticism of Seehofers border controls
Original article from May 7, 2020:
Berlin - Those who were considered neighbors a few weeks ago are now separated with fences. Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer (CSU) was considered submerged in the corona crisis *. Now he's talking about a conflict. He said the controls at the German borders made sense, he had emphasized last week and announced that he wanted to keep the border closed for the time being. Twelve members of the German Bundestag and the European Union have now asked the Federal Minister of the Interior to immediately end the controls on the German borders ordered by the corona pandemic * . In recent weeks, it has been argued that border controls are largely obsolete due to comparable measures in EU countries.
People meet at the German-Swiss border between Constance and Kreuzlingen on Lake Constance.
© dpa / Felix Kästle
"After more than seven weeks, there must be an end to lattice fences and barriers in the heart of Europe, " says the statement available to the German Press Agency. The editorial network Germany (RND / Thursday) had previously reported on this. The declaration is signed by, among others, ex-Union parliamentary group leader Volker Kauder, parliamentary group vice president Andreas Jung (both CDU) and Daniel Caspary, chairman of the CDU / CSU group in the European Parliament).
Coronavirus: EU borders closed seven weeks ago
“Families are cut up: adult children, for example, are not allowed to see their parents unless they are in need of care or sick - and siblings remain on two sides of the border fence. Commuters continue to be hindered, ”complained the parliamentarians. "That is why we are now calling for the immediate reopening of all closed border crossings on the borders with Switzerland, France and Luxembourg," said the MPs. By May 15 at the latest, all limit restrictions imposed as emergency measures would then no longer apply. "It can't go a day longer," they warn.
The MPs also urged EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) not to extend the exemption for border controls beyond May 15th.
Munich's Merkur also comments *: “It would be more urgent, however, that the federal government take care of its real task : a concept for a cautious but Europe-worthy border policy and a strong plan for an economic stimulus package after this crisis. Maybe in Berlin you might want to focus on that. ”
Coronavirus: Seehofer wants to continue to control EU borders - criticism comes from within our own ranks
The controls were first ordered in mid-March and then extended to slow the spread of the coronavirus in Germany. Since then, people who are neither Germans nor permanently resident here can only come to Germany for a "valid reason to travel" . EU citizens who travel through Germany to their home country or truck drivers are allowed to enter the country. Entry is also restricted to certain border crossings. Since April 10, almost all returnees in Germany have had to quarantine at home for two weeks after spending several days abroad.
Video: Austria also closed the borders weeks ago
dpa / nai
* Merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.
