Nearly a thousand people demonstrated on Saturday at the Franco-German border in Sarreguemines, Moselle, to demand "the abolition of Covid-19 tests of less than 48 hours for border workers".

Entered into force on March 2, this measure is "unbearable" according to cross-border workers. 

From 600, according to the police, to 1,000 people, according to the organizers, demanded Saturday at the Franco-German border in Sarreguemines, in Moselle, "the abolition of Covid-19 tests of less than 48 hours for border workers".

"We need a total abolition of tests, and not as demanded by certain politicians a single test per week", hammered Arsène Schmitt, president of the Defense Committee of Moselle border workers.

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"We are made plague victims"

Since March 2, the approximately 16,000 Moselle border workers have been forced to present a negative Covid-19 test of less than 48 hours to cross the border and go to the Saarland.

Germany has taken this unilateral measure after classifying the Moselle as a "high traffic area" of the South African and Brazilian variants of Covid-19.

An electronic entry declaration for German territory is also required.


For border residents, these measures are "unbearable" and even "worse" than the border closures experienced last year, noted the chairman of the committee.

"We are made plague victims", denounced Arsène Schmitt, who discussed with the German authorities and the Secretary of State in charge of European Affairs, Clément Beaune.

"But they are next to the reality of life," he lamented.

For cross-border workers now, it's "test, job, sleep", denounced Arsène Schmitt, a slogan used a lot during the demonstration.

“If we were so contaminating, why allow our German colleagues to shop with us within a radius of 30 kilometers without testing?” He asked.

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Other claims

This demonstration, which had been preceded by a first gathering of around a hundred people, according to Arsène Schmitt, at the border post of Bremen d'Or, near Saarbrücken (Germany) in the morning, was also the opportunity for frontier workers to recall other demands.

Among them, they demanded the end of the double taxation of which they "are victims on unemployment benefits" because, notes Arsène Schmitt, "Germany does not apply an amendment to a convention with France".

"We have been fighting for two years, but the Germans really need to hear us," said Arsène Schmitt, president of this defense committee born in 1977.