Containment exit has started in France… but gradually! By the way, according to Secretary of the Interior Christophe Castaner, this is a gradual confinement lifting rather that deconfinement. With this in mind, countries remain cautious as for reopening borders. Europe being the continent the virus has been very severe; authorities want to be highly precautious to contain the coronavirus epidemic.
Yet, many requests to reopen borders have been heard lately, especially as for border countries, such as the French-German border. As a matter of fact, as there are fewer contaminations in France and in Germany and since containment exit has started in both countries, it lets people believe reopening the border is the next step. Yet, we are not safe from a second epidemic wave. This is why Secretary of the Interior Christophe Castaner announced on Twitter that France and Germany have decided to extend controls at the border at least until June 15th.
🇩🇪 et 🇫🇷 avancent de façon coordonnée pour les contrôles aux frontières : suite à mon entretien avec Horst Seehofer hier, nous maintenons ensemble les restrictions de circulation #COVID19 jusqu’au 15 juin, avec des assouplissements pour faciliter le quotidien des frontaliers.
— Christophe Castaner (@CCastaner) May 13, 2020
Tweet reads: “[Germany and France] are moving together to control at the borders: following my meeting with Horst Seehofer yesterday, we keep COVID19 traffic restrictions together until June 15, with relaxing to make border dwellers’ lives easier”
The goal: keeping on limiting trips to contain the coronavirus epidemic. In his statement, Castaner announced that relaxing was planned for border dwellers, yet without giving further details. Germany set up controls mid-March. In this context, only border workers or food freight were allowed to cross the border. As for the other borders, the question remains. Spain could, for instance, keep its borders closed until October 2020.
