The situation with the Austrian view on Croatia is changing rapidly as the coronavirus pandemic rears its ugly head yet again in Croatia following an extremely poorly thought out tennis event in the popular Dalmatian city of Zadar.
From not wanting their citizens to travel freely to Croatia to seeing Austrian citizens replace their traditional favourite of Italy as a tourist destination with Croatia, to the Austrian media now claiming it is “dangerous” to holiday in Croatia – it’s difficult to try to follow. Another issue is now the apparent question of the Slovene authorities on the potential closing of the Slovenian-Croatian border.
As Poslovni Dnevnik writes on the 23rd of June, 2020, under the headline “Croatia – Vacation in Danger – Slovenia Considers Closing Border with Croatia” and subtitled “Rising Coronavirus Infections Concern Government”, the Austrian dailies Kleine Zeitung and Kurier, as well as some others, quoted Slovenian Health Minister Tomaz Gantar as saying on Wednesday: “As soon as the number of infections in Slovenia increases and it is determined that they were introduced from Croatia or the daily number of newly infected rises to a higher level, that country will be declared a red zone and quarantine will be introduced for all those coming from Croatia.”
They add that the Slovenian minister has made sure to warn his fellow Slovenian citizens who are now travelling to Croatia that it could happen that they have to be quarantined upon their return home to Slovenia: “Given that Croatia is in a dangerous area, that danger is real.”
Austrian media have also written that “the dream of a vacation on the Croatian Adriatic could be short-lived”, because Slovenia is considering closing its borders to that neighbouring country, after “several imported cases of the new coronavirus infection” appeared in Croatia, reports Vecernji list.
To further point out the seriousness of the coronavirus-induced situation, the Austrian media say that during a bilateral visit by Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg to Ljubljana, the Slovenian capital on Monday, his Slovenian counterpart Anze Logar showed “determination to promptly tighten the border regime if necessary”.
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