Stephan Weil, minister-president of Lower Saxony, is calling for authorisation to travel to the Balearic Islands to be suspended.
Weil, who is minister-president of the fourth largest German state by population, said on Sunday that the decision of the federal government to lift its advice against travel to Mallorca "has been a serious mistake". The best thing that the government could do would be "to backtrack". "If Angela Merkel is unwilling to do so, it will be necessary to open a serious debate on strict testing and quarantine requirements for returning passengers. The infection rate in Mallorca may not be critical, but if people from all over Europe gather on the island at Easter, we will have an immediate focus."
He added that it is "difficult to explain" that you cannot book a family holiday in Lüneburg Heath (which is in Lower Saxony) but that you can travel by plane to Mallorca.
Merkel is due to meet the heads of the governments of Germany's Länder on Monday and analyse steps to be taken in face of the rise in infections, with a seven-day cumulative incidence now above 100 per 100,000. Indications are that "an emergency brake" will be applied and that decisions will be taken regarding internal mobility over Easter.
There isn't, as yet, any indication that the government will backtrack on the travel advice for Mallorca, but Manuela Schwesig, the minister-president of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, echoes the views of Stephan Weil in failing to understand "that the option of a holiday in Mallorca now prevails over one in Germany itself for epidemiological reasons".