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Moderately visited beach in Lisbon: Germany imposes quarantine on returnees from Portugal
Photo: Paulo Mumia / dpa
On the island the excitement about the bad Germans was once again great.
"Angela Merkel starts campaign to ban all British travelers from the EU," headlined the London "Times" on Monday.
"Germany wants to forbid British vacationers in the EU," the "Mirror" seconded.
As expected, anti-German and EU-hostile furor raged through the reader forums. In return, some want to ban German football fans from entering the European Championship round of 16 in London (which they are denied anyway due to the quarantine rules in force), while others want to break off all relations with the continent, which is under the dictates of the German Chancellor. Some even called for a defensive battle on the beaches in the style of Winston Churchill.
The cause of the annoyance is the tightened rules for British travelers in some popular holiday regions.
For example, Portugal put Great Britain back on the list of corona risk countries on Monday, unvaccinated Brits have to be in quarantine for 14 days after entry.
In Spain, the British now have to present at least a negative PCR test again when they enter the country.
However, according to the British media, Merkel now wants to enforce even stricter restrictions throughout the EU - and ban British tourists from entering the country even if they have been vaccinated.
The fairy tale of the Merkel dictation
But the British view of Germany reveals one thing above all: that even after years of Brexit drama, people in London have little idea how the EU works.
In fact, Merkel has no means of dictating anything to the other EU countries.
According to SPIEGEL information, the European crisis mechanism IPCR decided not to ban the British across the EU on Monday.
And the way Portugal and Spain deal with British tourists, of all places, shows that decisions of national interest are made there without taking German ideas into account.
Both countries had single-handedly abandoned the jointly adopted recommendation of the Council of EU States, according to which only residents from countries with low infection rates were allowed to enter the country without further ado.
The United Kingdom is not on this list, but Portugal opened its doors to British holidaymakers, and Spain - much to the annoyance of other EU countries - did not even ask for negative PCR tests.
The Portuguese government received the receipt in the form of a rapidly increasing number of infections.
Throughout the spring, these were well below the EU average in Portugal, and the third wave of the pandemic practically did not take place in the country.
The situation has now turned: while the incidence is falling across the EU, it is rising rapidly in Portugal.
The government had to reintroduce various restrictions that had long since been lifted and recently even cordoned off the capital Lisbon in order to curb the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the corona virus.
"The Portuguese tourism industry is probably doing less well," says an EU official.
Difficult decision for the emergency brake
In addition, the other EU states by no means have to watch the goings-on.
You can deal sensitive blows to the tourism industry in EU countries that are hastily easing the corona restrictions.
Because the EU members have also agreed on an "emergency brake" that allows each of them to restrict entry from virus variant areas.
The federal government has pulled this emergency brake in the case of Portugal: From Tuesday at midnight, a transport ban for travelers from Portugal applies for 14 days.
Anyone who has a place of residence in Germany is allowed to enter the country, but has to be in quarantine for 14 days - regardless of whether they have been vaccinated or not, even a test does not shorten the separation.
This, too, is unlikely to have a positive effect on the number of German holiday bookings in Portugal.
The decision was preceded by a lengthy internal debate in the federal government's crisis team. Usually, the new country classifications are determined by the so-called risk area switch, which meets regularly on Thursday by phone. However, according to SPIEGEL information, the Federal Ministry of Transport, among others, did not want to endorse the recommendation to declare the whole of Portugal a virus variant area. Andreas Scheuer's house (CSU) urged the Azores and Madeira to be excluded from upgrading, as the delta variant is less common there than, for example, in Lisbon or the Algarve.
Formally, only the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Health and the Foreign Office are entitled to vote in the crisis team.
But the transport ministry's arguments were apparently taken seriously.
In any case, the decision was - unlike usual - not made by the specialist civil servants, but went up to the state secretaries.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also sympathized with exceptions for Madeira and the Azores.
Merkel is said to have intervened via SMS
In the end, Merkel is said to have personally intervened with Foreign Minister Heiko Maas via SMS and spoken out against exceptions.
The only concession: The classification only applies from Tuesday, so German vacationers in Portugal and tour operators were able to endeavor to return home early up to and including Monday in order to avoid the 14-day quarantine.
Apparently not all of them want to break off their vacation.
Olimar, a company specializing in Portugal, announced that around 20 percent of its guests have chosen to stay in Portugal.
Either they accept the strict quarantine rules.
Or they try to avoid the stricter entry controls by rebooking flights to Germany's neighboring countries such as Luxembourg or the Netherlands and then traveling back to Germany by train or car.
Even then, they have to register their entry online and state their vacation spot, but in the absence of controls, many could bypass this.
In any case, the federal government fears that the delta variant could then come to Germany overland from Portugal.
This threatens new chaos in the EU in autumn or possibly as early as late summer, with openings in economically troubled tourism countries and emergency brakes in those states that fear above all a rapid spread of the delta variant. Because border controls are still a matter for the member countries - even jointly decided recommendations or the Corona certificate, which will apply from July 1st, do not change anything.
Then we will also see whether there will be border controls within the EU again. At least Merkel is currently speaking out against it. Border controls are "something very tough" that "should not be repeated," said the Chancellor on Monday in front of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer also sees "no reason for stationary border controls at the moment," as his house said. The emphasis should be on "momentarily".