SPLIT PANTS: SHOP ON BORDER ONLY HALF-OPEN

BRUSSELS A clothes shop that straddles the Dutch-belgian border found itself half-open and half-shut after the two countries pursued different containment policies for coronavirus.

The Zeeman store in Dutch Baarle-nassau divided its shop with tape and kept the Dutch side open after Belgium shut down all non-essential shops to fight the spread of the virus.

Dutch shoppers were unable to buy underwear, for example, because that was kept in the Baarle-hertog half of the shop, on the Belgian side of the border.

The Netherlands has not ordered the closure of all its non-essential shops but does require them to enforce social distancing measures.

“The square metres (of the store) in Belgium just follow the Belgian measures. The square metres in the Netherlands, follow the Dutch measures,” said Marjon De Hoon, the mayor of Baarle-nassau.

“I needed underwear, but that’s in the Belgian part of the store, so I could not get it,” a Dutch customer told the VRT broadcaster.

The Belgian authorities had asked the Zeeman chain to close the store but, because it falls under Dutch law, they were powerless to force the shop to shut.

However, the shop eventually decided to close down entirely.