Ski wars: Merkel braces for fight over Covid-19 push to close resorts

By Rachel More and Ella Joyner, dpa
Berlin/Brussels (dpa) – Europe’s ski resorts would close to the public this winter if German Chancellor Angela Merkel had her way. But the European Commission is not taking sides with her and Italy in a dispute with Austria and Switzerland.

“The decision whether or not to allow skiing is of course a national competence,” a spokesperson for the EU executive branch, Stefan De Keersmaecker, told reporters in Brussels on Thursday amid a brewing altercation between Alpine states.

Berlin and Rome want European-wide curbs on the winter past-time, as European countries struggle to break a second wave of coronavirus infections.

Ski resort facilities are currently closed in most of Europe, including Italy, Austria, Slovenia, France and Germany.

The question is whether to reopen them for the holiday period.

Austria has been emphasizing for months that it wants to allow winter sports with appropriate precautions and has vehemently rejected the idea of closing ski resorts.

Switzerland is also sticking with its plans to allow the ski season to go ahead.

While stressing that the EU Commission won’t be laying down the law for member states, De Keersmaecker warned that “lifting restrictions too early can increase the risks of resurgence of the virus” and called for coordination.

Merkel said on Thursday that she “will try to get a vote in Europe on whether we could close all ski resorts.”

“Unfortunately, when you hear statements from Austria, it doesn’t look like we would succeed so easily, but we will try again,” the German leader told lawmakers in Berlin.

The Swiss government, local authorities and the tourism sector “are convinced that the Swiss way – for the moment – is right and that the winter season can take place safely,” Markus Berger, spokesperson for Switzerland Tourism, told dpa on Thursday.

In France, the ski lifts are to be shut during the holidays, but ski resort towns would remain open.

“Of course everyone … will be able to go to these stations and enjoy the pure air of our beautiful mountains and the shops – outside of bars and restaurants, which remain closed,” Prime Minister Jean Castex said in a televised press conference on Thursday.

“But it is simple: All mechanical lifts and public facilities remain closed,” Castex said, adding that it would not be prudent to allow group gatherings in those places.

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Wednesday that banning cross-border travel within the European Union was out of the question, but added that people coming back from holidays abroad would have to take coronavirus tests and/or go into isolation.

In an open letter to politicians, German skiing associations expressed their opposition to any ban this season, arguing that the debate so far had not considered the value of hygiene measures at clubs and resorts.

The letter rejected any comparison between winter sports and party tourism, and instead insisted that ski tourism was an indispensable economic driver across the Alpine region.

Earlier this year when the first wave of coronavirus infections pounded Europe, the Austrian ski resort Ischgl, with its lively party scene, was uncovered as the source of a number cases in Europe as infected tourists returned to their home countries.