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At the request of two Austrian high school students, the Bavarian Administrative Court decides that the weekly test will be suspended for the time being.
The Bavarian Administrative Court has temporarily suspended the obligation to conduct weekly tests for cross-border travelers. “The suspension of the regulation has a general effect,” explained a court spokesman on Tuesday, the far-reaching consequences of the urgent request of two Austrian students attending an elementary school in Laufen in the Berchtesgadener Land district. The Salzburg Chamber of Labor reacted with satisfaction and spoke of 4,500 people in Salzburg alone.
“The Free State of Bavaria is now challenged to find long-term, law-abiding regulation,” AK President Peter Eder said in a broadcast that night. He reported that the Salzburger AK had taken over the legal protection for the lawsuit.
The two high school students had to undergo a corona test at least once a week according to the German state entry quarantine regulations. The Court’s Senate has now decided that this regulation is likely to prove ineffective in the main proceedings. Therefore, he suspended it.
Doubts about proportionality
The administrative attorneys argued their decision on three levels. They saw that the legal requirements for the order were not met, they expressed doubts about the proportionality of a weekly test obligation and they saw the right to free movement of EU citizens affected. In this regard, reference is made to a recommendation of the European Council, according to which entry restrictions should not discriminate against Germans from EU foreigners.
“The administrative court followed our arguments and decided in accordance with the European idea and the principle of equality,” commented AK President Eder. Bavarian State Chancellor Florian Herrmann (CSU) said in an initial reaction that the decision would be analyzed. Eder demanded that the Salzburg state policy be politically and diplomatically active in the interest of those affected.
According to a report by Bayerischer Rundfunk, the test required around 100 people in the primary school living in and around Oberdorf (Salzburg area). They even organized their own massive tests in the city of Laufen to save them long detours to the test centers in Freilassing or Bayerisch Gmain. Rector Maurice Flatscher had criticized the compulsory test as discriminatory because Bavarian students in Austria did not have to take a test.
Söder’s argument: avoid border closure
The test was only introduced on October 23. Since then, all persons who regularly travel to Bavaria at least once a week for professional or business reasons or for training purposes have had to submit a weekly “unsolicited and immediate” corona test result to the responsible administrative authority . With the obligation to carry out the test, the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder had repeatedly justified why the borders with Austria and the Czech Republic, unlike the spring, are not closed despite the high number of infections.
In Austria there was immediate criticism of the measure, which affects tens of thousands of employees, businessmen and school children, especially in the neighboring federal states of Vorarlberg, Tyrol, Salzburg and Upper Austria. Employee and employer representatives called for a withdrawal and warned of the chaos. At the very least, the Bavarian government made it clear that Austrian cross-border travelers could use the test centers set up by Bavaria for free.
(WHAT / dpa)
