Spokesperson for the German government, Steffen Seibert, said on Friday that it is looking to "minimise all types of incoming travel" to the country and is therefore analysing the legal feasibility of temporarily banning arrivals over the Easter period.
Seibert was asked at a press conference about preventing trips abroad over the holiday period, especially to the Balearics, for which there is high demand since the government removed the islands from its list of risk zones. He referred instead to incoming travel and to whether such a measure would conflict with freedom of movement within the Schengen zone and the right of every German to return to the country.
On Thursday, Chancellor Angela Merkel recognised the legal problems and stressed that Germany must always act in accordance with the law, the issue having arisen because of the controversy surrounding the demand for trips to Mallorca. She stressed that it was difficult to restrict travel abroad.
As from this weekend, the German government will be obliging all travellers entering the country to submit a negative test regardless of where they have travelled from. Until now, a test has only been needed for travelling from areas classified as high incidence or with the presence of variants of coronavirus.
The government has been strongly advising against non-essential travel for several months, both abroad and within Germany. It wishes to restrict mobility as infections have been increasing for several weeks. On Friday, the seven-day incidence per 100,000 was 119.1. In mid-February this was 58.
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