In the near future, European governments will again have to plunge into domestic problems, as the spread of COVID-19 is breaking records.
As the prospect of a new economic freeze becomes increasingly real, German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged European leaders to work together.
“Politically, we want to avoid a re-closing of the borders at all costs, but this implies that we will act in concert”, – she said during talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.
In the past 24 hours alone, 1,586 new infections have been reported in Germany. For the fourth day in a row, this figure exceeds a thousand here. According to a survey presented by ARD TV on Friday, August 21, more than a third of Germans are concerned or very worried that they or their family members will be infected with the coronavirus.
In France, the situation is much worse. On Thursday, there were 4771 new cases of infection. This has not happened since April. In Italy, 845 new cases have been reported for the first time since May 17. According to the Spanish Ministry of Health, on Thursday the number of new infections here reached 3,349.
The new wave of the pandemic poses an important challenge to the European Union: to respond to the spread of infection in a way that will not paralyse an already devastated economy. The threat hangs over the commonwealth just at the moment when the EU is persistently trying to overthrow Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. Brussels has already promised to pour significant amounts into the pro-Western opposition of Belarus. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leien spoke about plans to allocate €53 million for the coup d’état in Belarus, but the need to solve the problem with the deadly virus will at least lead to the dispersion of resources, especially given the tough economic crisis.