Status: 08/12/2021 5:11 p.m.
With the increasing corona numbers, the federal police are again randomly checking the borders. In Saarland, they have learned from the past few months – because this time they want to prevent border closings.
The controls at the German-French and German-Luxembourg border are back. Only on a random basis and for those returning to travel. But they have already caused displeasure. Last week, federal police officers mistakenly rejected border commuters at the crossing between Großrosseln in Saarland and Petite-Rosselle in Lorraine, although they do not have to present negative test results.
“Something like that shouldn’t happen anymore”, says the representative for European affairs of the Saarland, Roland Theis. The federal police want to work up the incident internally. That is what the spokeswoman for the Saarbrücken police station, Maxie Imgenberg, promises.
This is not the first time that problems have arisen at this border crossing. Commuters were prevented from entering the country last year. Then as now, angry people complained to the member of the French National Assembly, Christophe Arend, whose constituency borders on Saarland. “Around 20 people contacted me – cross-border commuters who had to turn around.”
Arend turned to Theis, the latter to the Federal Police – and soon the disagreements were resolved. Those involved on site have learned from the past few months.
“Old wounds tear open again”
And yet the fear was suddenly back – of possible border closings, of families torn apart, of problems at work like the beginning of 2021 or 2020. French commuters had to take a test before going to work in Saarland. The frontier was back in people’s minds.
Border closings are a federal matter. To ensure that these conditions never occur again, Arend and colleagues in the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly obtained the concession of Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and the then French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner.
More tests in France and Luxembourg
At a hearing earlier this year, Chancellor Angela Merkel and French Prime Minister Jean Castex confirmed this promise again. Thus, Berlin and Paris also stand behind the demands from the region. Again and again, the eyes in the pandemic are focused on the number of cases. That they can be deceptive across national borders when the test strategies of the countries are different was shown in the triangle.
Significantly more tests are carried out in France and Luxembourg – the number of cases can accordingly be higher than in Saarland. These variables are also included in the RKI’s calculation and assessment of possible high-risk areas. In order to be able to better assess the infection rate in the border triangle, there are regular virtual, cross-border exchanges between the regional health authorities in the border area, in which representatives of the federal levels also take part. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) confirms this on request.
So far, no incidents on the German-Luxembourg border
While things are slowly starting to rumble at the Franco-German crossings, the mayors in the Luxembourg border region are relaxed. Michel Gloden, Mayor of Schengen, is not aware of any incidents involving rejected commuters. “I have the feeling that everything is back to normal here.”
The mayor of Perl, Ralf Uhlenbruch, also shares this view. Instead of looking into the past, they look ahead here and are already planning a large, cross-border wine festival for May next year. Because there is one thing they want to avoid everywhere in the tri-border region: that the borders return to people’s minds. Last year, one of the border communities’ slogan was “Schengen is alive” – ”Schengen is alive”. That should now apply more than ever before.