Coronavirus: German officials slam insults against French people in border areas

BERLIN • German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has condemned aggression towards French people travelling into border areas, which has flared amid the coronavirus pandemic.

"Coronavirus knows nothing of nationality. It's the same for human dignity. It hurts to see how some of our French friends have been insulted and attacked because of Covid-19," Mr Maas posted on Twitter last Saturday.

"Such behaviour is completely unacceptable. And besides: we are in the same boat," he added.

His tweet came in response to a similarly apologetic post last Wednesday from Ms Anke Rehlinger, the economy minister in Saarland state which borders France's Grand Est region.

"Our heart bleeds for the closed borders to France and Luxembourg," Ms Rehlinger said.

"We have heard that French people have been insulted and had eggs thrown at them. People doing such things are sinning against the friendship between our nations."

Some days before, the mayor of a small town on the border complained of "a certain hostility to our French friends" in his district.

"Some have been insulted or stopped on the street" while others "no longer dare come here", Gersheim mayor Michael Clivot told news site t-online.

The situation in Gersheim became so bad that he posted a video directly addressing the townspeople on Facebook.

Some French people had reported being spat on while out walking or queueing at the supermarket, he said. One had been told to "go back to your corona-ridden country", he added.

The French consul in Saarland, Ms Catherine Robinet, confirmed that "isolated" incidents targeting French nationals had taken place in the region.

But she urged against "generalising" the anti-French sentiment, adding that she had also received numerous messages of support.

Some people in France also have reacted poorly to Germans in the country, she added.

For Mr Clivot, the incidents showed that a decision by Berlin to close the frontier in the middle of last month in a bid to slow the spread of the pandemic had been a mistake.

On March 16, Germany introduced tough border controls with neighbouring nations including France.

Since then, only goods deliveries and cross-border commuters have been waved through by police, while officers have turned back other travellers.

Grand Est on the German border has suffered France's most deadly Covid-19 outbreak, with more than 2,000 confirmed deaths.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE