Merkel apparently absolutely against travel abroad: "Will set heaven and hell in motion"

Angela Merkel wants to prevent trips to vacation areas.

The Ministry of the Interior and Justice is examining whether this is legally possible.

Berlin - Mallorca was removed from the list of corona risk areas on March 14th.

This was followed by numerous holiday bookings for the popular Balearic island.

The Foreign Office had lifted the travel warning because the number of new infections there had fallen below 50 per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days.

This suddenly made it possible to take a vacation in Mallorca without quarantine and without having to test on return.

In the Prime Minister's Conference there was therefore a major conflict on Tuesday night.

It was about the travel conditions to Mallorca - and how to deal with them.

There was also discussion about traveling in one's own state.

Angela Merkel wants to do everything possible to limit travel to Mallorca

At the Corona summit it was finally agreed that the interior and justice ministries should again check whether trips to Mallorca could not be restricted by the federal government.

"I will set heaven and hell in motion," Merkel is said to have said according to the participants.

It could not be "that we are not in a position to prevent people from flying to Mallorca now, but in Flensburg we can enforce a 15-kilometer radius," she quotes the

Spiegel

.

Criticism follows from the opposition.

The tourism policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Marcel Klinge, is not enthusiastic about the government's deliberations.

He describes the measure to ban holidays abroad as a "declaration of bankruptcy".

"This is pure activism to distract people from their own disastrous crisis management," said Klinge after a report by

Tagesspiegel

.

After the digital EU summit in Berlin on Thursday, the Chancellor sees legal difficulties in restricting tourist travel abroad.

“There are significant legal concerns.

You have to take it first, ”said the CDU politician on Thursday evening.

Merkel therefore asked the responsible ministries to examine options for this.

You cannot anticipate the result, said the Chancellor.

“We cannot act illegally.

And that's why I'm looking forward to the repeated examination. "

There are already travel restrictions in other EU countries

In Lithuania, the cabinet imposed a strict travel ban over Easter.

The population is not allowed to travel to other cities and municipalities outside of their own place of residence between March 27 and April 6 without compelling reasons.

Prime Minister Ingrida Simonyte appealed to the population to spend Easter at home.

This is reported by the

German Press Agency

.

The Danish government has also urged its people not to travel abroad.

The Danish Foreign Ministry announced on Friday that travel restrictions would be extended until April 20.

The reason for this, however, is not a high number of corona infections, but the good location of Denmark.

You are currently in a better situation than many other countries in the EU, it said in the communication.

"The continued restriction of travel activity is a key element in efforts to control the spread of the infection." The government is working on a digital vaccination record, which is expected to be ready in May.

At the same time, negotiations are ongoing in the EU about a joint certificate that could make travel easier.

(dp / dpa)