Kaiser Apologizes for the Chaos at the Border to Austria

On Saturday, the federal government introduced the regulation to control people crossing the borders to Austria. Returning travellers had to fill out documents with personal data and their passport was copied. Those in transit had to confirm to not stop in Austrian territory. Many of them were German or Dutch nationality.

The regulation was surprising for many travellers as it was announced Saturday morning and was valid immediately.

According to the police, people had to wait up to twelve hours for entering Austria through the Karawankentunnel. At the Loibltunnel they had to wait about seven hours during nighttime.

In the early morning, the authorities decided to change it approach and controlled randomly but not everyone anymore. This led to an ease and the traffic started flowing more.

The Carinthian governor Kaiser now apologized to the travellers for the chaos at the border. He believes that a lack of communication between the federal and the state government led to this chaos. In these difficult times, it is even more important to take time to proof the feasibility of a regulation, he says.

He does not want to blame anyone however due to clearer verification of the regulation, which was done by the Health Ministry Sunday afternoon, he claims that the approach of the Carinthian authorities complied with the law and therefore seemed to be right.

The Slovenian as well as the Croatian government were very surprised from this regulation too. Slovenia criticized that they did not get informed and that this situation was inhumane. Croatia was very worried about the situation and appealed for a faster border clearance.