“Decision not understood”
The Diario reports that the Regional Secretary for Tourism, Eduardo Jesus, does not understand why Germany did not discriminate positively in favour of Madeira vis-à-vis the whole of Portugal in terms of new limitations imposed on travellers. Yesterday Germany announced that with effect from next Tuesday (June 29) both Portugal and Russia will be classified as “virus variant areas” and apply strict rules to returning travellers, including a negative PCR test and a strict 14-day quarantine (this period cannot be shortened regardless of the number of tests taken).
The government official reacted in this way to the recent inclusion of Portugal in the German ‘red list’, effectively making Madeira suffer from the decision imposed on the whole country. The decision, it is understood, will not be reconsidered by the German authorities for two weeks, although different reports are giving different details in this respect.
“Germany’s decision is naturally not understood by us as reasonable, since there was again the temptation to consider Madeira in the whole of Portugal as a country, without having the notion that the Autonomous Region Madeira is not only physically distant, it has a pandemic reality different from that which is national”.
We believe that since Chancellor Angela Merkel last week openly criticised the Portuguese understanding of pandemic control, referring directly to the Prime Minister of Portugal, we realized that there was a threat here and we immediately approached the German ambassador in Portugal, and also by sensitizing the large operators within the German market here in Madeira, in order to reach them with what was the pure and harsh reality of the Region, and seeking to have a separate understanding of such positive discrimination that I have been referring to in relation to Madeira.
Regional Secretary for Tourism, Eduardo Jesus
6,200 airplane seats at risk
Given this situation, the regional secretary fears that 6,200 seats on the planes that were planned for the next 14 days are at risk. “We have, at this moment, available for these same 14 days, 6,200 seats on planes connecting Germany to Madeira on direct flights. “These arrivals will be harmed”, predicts the official, although he does not know, for now, “to what extent”.
At this moment, the Region has already started “to sensitize the entities again in the sense of considering Madeira as an Autonomous Region and not with the numbers integrated in the national numbers”, work that will continue to be done in the coming days, “so that the next review that takes place after 14 days can take into account that same concern on our part”, points out Jesus.
This Friday, Germany placed Portugal on the ‘red list’ with the origin of the decision being the significant increase in the incidence rate in Portugal, which registers 137.5 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants. The number of currently infected exceeds 30,000. More than a thousand cases were reported in Lisbon and Vale do Tejo in 24 hours.
Portugal and Russia were placed on the list of countries that Germany considers areas at particularly high risk due to the ‘classification’ decided out by Robert Koch Institut, the federal government institution responsible for monitoring and preventing diseases, and is valid for two weeks, warning that limitations to circulation may be prolonged.
A new tab has been added to the top of each page with a link to resources dealing with COVID-19 in Madeira – this covers the latest government regulations on travel to the island, how to get a PCR test, and many other links that will be useful to people wanting to travel to and from Madeira
COVID-19 in Madeira: daily updates can be found in an earlier post
Vaccinations in Madeira: updates can be found in an earlier post
Good news for Madeira from the UK, immediately followed by bad news from Germany!
That’s the EU for you.
No, that’s Germany acting as a Sovereign State!
SURPRISE! I agree with you.
The Clown, Cummings, Pratel, Hangcock, meager pensions, lies on red busses, that is UK for you.
Do you agree with me too?
The passengers on the World Voyager which visited recently are all Germans so will have to quarantine when they get back and there are two more of these cruises to go.
And what makes you think that a German red zone is the same as a UK red zone for arrivals?
Oh really, dear chap, do other countries have their own rules? How ennoying and thoughtless of them foreigners!
That’s Merkel for you . . .
I prefer Merkel to Hancock.
Just hoping Madeira don’t stop us from coming in two weeks time
In both the UK and Germany is the Azores included with Madeira or Portugal?
Doesn’t anybody else sense that it won’t be long before Macron follows Germany and red-lists Portugal?
Macron will do what his German masters say he should do.
I was wondering when you would find a way of having a dig at the EU, seeing as you can8t blame this in EU spite towards the U.K.!
Apologies for the typos: “can’t blame this on..”
I did not mention the EU, you did! I just said Macron will do as Merkel demands.
How pedantic.
I so wish there was a “like” facility for comments in here!
Germany acting as a sovereign state? And being a member of the EU? Are you being serious or just having a laugh?
Taxes, pensions, nature protection, atomic weapons, covid measures, most labour laws, what you want more in terms of silly 19th century sovereignty?
The British working serfs will do what their Tory masters say they should do.
Maybe the French can figure out that Madeira is 500+ miles from mainland Portugal. Why did the Germans completely ignore this?
In your political views on this, pro-Brexit, anti-Brexit, we hate Merkel and Macron is her slave, you are all missing the point. Germany sees the India variant, or Delta, or whatever the name you want to give it, has been raising the transmission numbers in Portugal at a frightening rate. Though it does not suit me at all personally, I think it is a wise decision that should be followed by the complete EU.
Well maybe Germany should have closed her borders to flights from India and Turkey.
We can both agree that Germany has an overdose of sovereignty .
Sovereignty and nationalism are 19th century curses that have now come back to haunt the citizens of Planet Earth.
In 1968 things looked so promising……
England should have closed her borders with India in the first place. But hey. They couldn’t as Boris wanted to go there. And what Boris wants, Boris gets, regardless of the costs – material and immaterial.
As someone who is not a UK citizen, why are you and your ilk so obsessed by the UK. And please don’t use England when you obviously mean the UK.
I and my ilk only respond to posters who spread fake news and crtitisise other countries while being blind for what goes wrong in the Disunited Kingdom.
Would you be so kind as to expand on exactly which fake news you are referring to?
Maurice, when my husband and I were at a concert at the theatre in Funchal last Jan/Feb the orchestra played Pomp and Circumstance March No.1 and a gentleman seated in a box just to the left of the stage stood up, much to the embarrassment of myself and other Brits. It wasn’t you by any chance, was it?
By last, I should have said Jan/Feb 2020. (I’ve already written the past year off completely!!)
Your sarcastic remarks do you no credit. I hope I never come across you in Madeira or anywhere else for that matter.
I’ve finished with the blog for the time being. To many nasty people posting now.
Good ridance – an intelligent discussion was never your forte.
Shame you’ve left as I’d to know which part of my question to Maurice you consider as sarcastic. I also now wonder if that person at the theatre was you?
Wasn’t me!
After all the fake news that you spread, allow me not to believe you on your word.