Hundreds Protest Against Lockdown at Polish-German Border

nytimes.com/reuters/2020/04/25/world/europe/25reuters-health-coronavirus-cross-border-workers.html

An interesting little facet of this crisis...a reminder of how far our people have come in the recent decades...but also how easy it would be to lose all that again!


Protests were staged also in other Polish towns located on the German and Czech borders.

I saw a report on it on tv.

BTW, isn't there online teaching in Germany?

That's really tough -something that seemed so unusual yet so obvious (living in one country and working in another ) is not so easy anymore.

I really wonder what will happen to these people as it seems pretty unlikely right now that they'll open the borders.

That's the german position on this (only in german):

berliner-zeitung.de/wirtschaft-verantwortung/warschau-prueft-lockerungen-li.82208

Just some infos....after stats from the german Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK) about 25.000 people are directly concerned by this border closing between Germany and Poland...commuters who live and work in both countries. This border region developed in the recent years to a "joint economic area".

Brandenburg and Saxony decided to support the commuters financially when they decide to stay on the german side of the border....there is criticism against the polish gov, it's said they "overshoot the mark"!


Till Corona we were a digital third world country....now home office and digital schooling has become a topic...maybe if the right consequences will be drawn we will now start to close the gap and invest more in such stuff...also online teaching. But right now it's not really an alternative...especially not long term and especially not for the poor families...not every kid has a computer with internet at home!

Even if they support them financially, that may work for single people. It won't be that easy for those with families.

No, it won't....many of these people will lose their jobs for good...little companies will stay closed, even after the worst is over...it's a catastrophe for this developing region.

It would be nice if afterwards Poland and Germany would butt in together to help this region especially...a common fund or something...

Good idea.

I wouldn't close the border in the first place. Either we have a union, we help each other, and we're all in this together, or we close the borders and destroy the cross-border cooperation and local economy in the regions. Outside borders should be closed but closing borders within the Union doesn't make much sense.

I studied with one Polish girl who lives in Frankfurt (Oder) and who is really deep in Polish-German projects. She's nothing short of furious, because she can't go freely to Słubice for meetings (even an appeal to the wojewoda to give her special permission on account of her work was denied!) anymore, and she says that they're completely ignoring the plight of people in Słubice. People are getting sacked from their jobs in Frankfurt as they can't get to work, as well.


I've read an article about how people on both sides of the Olza are in shock, because they've never known this level of restriction. Even during the PRL, they could still relatively freely go to/from Czechoslovakia, so this is destroying communities there.

One Polish medical doctor who lives in Germany, but is employed on the Polish side of the frontier (a reverse situation to the typical case of trans-border employment between Poland and Germany) has recently complained, too. He cannot temporarily move to Poland because of his pregnant wife who should remain at their home in Germany.