From midnight, it has been forbidden for Danes to travel into Sweden, unless you were going to work or home to your permanent residence in the neighboring country.
When the closure of the border was announced, it happened in connection with the announcement that Sweden would also close for entry from the UK due to the fear of a particularly contagious virus variant.
But it was not against this background that the Swedish government made the decision to close the borders with Denmark to anyone other than people who have a job or residence in the country. It was rather the risk that the Danes would spread corona infection through shopping and tourism in primarily southern Sweden, says the Swedish Foreign Minister, Ann Linde, according to the newspaper Expressen in the morning program TV4 Nyhedsmorgen .
“We closed the border so that the Danes do not come here to be tourists and have fun,” reads the message.
At the press conference on Monday, the Swedish authorities in the form of Interior Minister Mikael Damberg and Ann Linde as well as the Swedish National Board of Health, Folkhälsomyndigheten, announced that they fear that Danes will be lured to Sweden during the Christmas holidays, now that the Danish government has closed malls and many other shopping opportunities. Denmark.
“There is an immediate risk that Danes will feel like going to Sweden to shop, buy Christmas presents or spend time in Malmö, for example,” the foreign minister said according to SVT at the press conference.
The Swedish border police announced on Tuesday morning that they have so far stopped about 30 motorists at the border control and asked them to turn around and drive back to Denmark. Most have stopped at the Øresund Bridge, while a small number of Danes have been stopped at the ferry in Helsingborg.
The particularly contagious virus variant, which is to blame for the fact that several European countries have stopped temporarily for all entry from the United Kingdom, has also been found in Denmark, but not in Sweden.
According to the Public Health Authority, however, it can not be ruled out that the variant is also found in Sweden, but that it has just not been discovered yet. Not all countries, like Denmark, test systematically for mutations in viruses, and therefore these countries will naturally not discover new variants.
Several Swedish virus experts have told the Swedish media that they find it “probable” that the variant already exists in Sweden.
Several politicians from the country’s largest opposition party, the Moderates, have in recent weeks expressed a desire to have the border with Denmark closed. Carl Johan Sonesson, chairman of the regional council in Skåne, said on Monday that he wanted the border closed to Danish leisure travelers due to the mutated virus. The party leader Ulf Kristersson did the same.
However, politicians in the Malmö area have long wanted a stop for Danish visitors, who are believed to be helping to spread infection in Sweden, which is already under heavy pressure from an increasing number of cases of infection. The Swedish regional councilor in Region Skåne Gilbert Tribo, who is also chairman of the region’s health committee, already told SVT two weeks ago that he wanted the borders between Denmark and Sweden closed, so it would no longer be possible for Danes to cross the Sound to Christmas shopping or going to a restaurant.
