Germany slams harassment of French nationals over coronavirus as ‘unacceptable’: ‘We are in the same boat’

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German officials have condemned the alleged harassment of French nationals following a local mayor’s claim that the visitors are sometimes publicly insulted or spat on over fears they are infected with the coronavirus.

Michael Clivot, the mayor of the German border town of Gersheim, said that incidents of harassment were occurring in his town during a video address to residents earlier this month, German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported.

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Clivot later told German website T-online that he heard accounts of French visitors being spat on while walking or insulted in grocery stores, with some being told to “go back to your corona-country,” according to the outlet.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas denounced the alleged incidents as “unacceptable” in a tweet Saturday.

"Corona knows no nationality," Maas said, adding that it is painful to see “our French friends” be “insulted or confronted” over fears of spreading the virus.

“This kind of behavior is totally unacceptable,” Maas said. “Besides, we are in the same boat!”

GERMAN POLICE ATTACKED WITH STONES, IRON BARS WHILE ENFORCING CORONAVIRUS SOCIAL DISTANCE MEASURES

Germany and France have a similar number of total coronavirus infections, with the disease sickening 127,854 people in Germany compared to the 133,672 who have been diagnosed in France as of Monday. The death toll in Germany has been far lower than other hard-hit European countries, with reports of 3,022 fatalities compared to 14,393 deaths in France.

Many countries in Europe closed their borders last month to help curb the spread of the virus.

A man with a shopping bag crosses the cordoned off friendship bridge between the villages of Grosbliederstroff in France and Kleinblittersdorf in Germany.(Oliver Dietze/dpa via AP)

Anke Rehlinger, economy minister of the western German state of Saarland, also said she heard that French nationals were being insulted and, in some cases, had “eggs thrown at them” in border towns.

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"Our Saarland heart is bleeding at the closed borders,” Rehlinger posted on Twitter last week. “I apologize to our French friends for such isolated cases.”