Hundreds of Polish citizens living near the border chose to work in neighboring Germany, crossing the border daily. Having lost this opportunity and, as a consequence, income, they went to a protest rally.
On Saturday, April 25, according to Reuters.
Protests were staged by residents of the Polish city of Zgorzelec, who worked in Germany. Poland became one of the first European countries to introduce quarantine restrictions and close its borders. Moreover, all those entering the country are required to be on a two-week self-isolation.
“I was trapped at home for six weeks, I can’t cross the border, go to work. I cannot return to my students, ” says a Polish teacher working in German Görlitz.
Protests unfolded at the pedestrian crossing between Zgorzelec and Gerlitz, two cities that functioned as one before the pandemic. About three hundred people from the Polish side and about a hundred from the German took part in the action. They were separated by a metal fence erected on a bridge over the Lauzitzer Nysse River, which runs the border between the two countries.
According to the data of the Zgorzelec administration, about 20 thousand Poles worked in Germany. 10.5 thousand of them daily crossed the border. Only in Gorlice worked about 3 thousand citizens of Poland.
According to media reports, protests broke out in other Polish cities on the border with Germany and the Czech Republic