Germany will begin this Monday at temporarily control all its land borders in order to reduce irregular migration, despite the rejection of its neighboring countries and amid accusations that the measure deals A hard blow to the European Schengen area free circulation.
The “flexible and security-based” controls will be carried out at the Central European country’s borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark over the next six months, in addition to those already in place in border areas with Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic and Poland.
The German Chancellor, the Social Democrat Olaf Scholzdefended the controls on Saturday at an event in the federal state of Brandenburg, where the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is leading the polls ahead of next Sunday’s regional elections.
“Irregular migration is not what we want,” he said, noting that “It was not good“That of the 300,000 people who arrived in Germany last year, only a fraction were eligible for protection.
Germany distrusts some neighbours
“Unfortunately, we cannot fully rely on all of our neighbors to do things the way they should,” he said.
Scholz’s coalition is under pressure from the rise of the far right in the east of the country and a Christian Democratic opposition that insists on the general rejection of asylum seekers at German borders, something that the government considers contrary to European law.
With the controls, Germany wants to “further reduce irregular migration, stop smugglers, stop criminals and identify and arrest Islamists at an early stage,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Sunday.
“We continue to act in close coordination with our neighbouring countries. We also want to ensure that the controls have the least possible impact on people in border regions, travellers, trade and the economy,” he said.
Germany says that internal border controls with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland, which have been in place since October 2023, have proven effective, as they have turned back more than 30,000 people who have tried to enter the country illegally since then.
Faeser assures that in addition There are a fifth fewer asylum applications and a fifth more returns.
Berlin maintains, however, that the overall burden borne by Germany must be taken into account, in particular the limited capacities of municipalities in terms of accommodation, as well as in the areas of education and integration due to the admission of 1.2 million refugees from Ukraine and asylum migration in recent years.
Criticism from neighbours and other countries
Germany is thus trying to justify its actions after criticism from some neighbours, but also from EU countries such as Greece.
Scholz called Polish Prime Minister on Friday, Donald Tusk, to assure you that the measure complies with the European legal system.
The liberal Polish politician called Berlin’s announcement “unacceptable” and announced urgent consultations with the other affected countries in the European Union (EU).
The Austrian government has announced that it will not accept people turned away at the German border. “There is no room for manoeuvre,” said Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner.
Other European countries have also spoken out about the measure. The Greek Prime Minister, the conservative Kyriakos Mitsotakispointed out that the migration issue cannot be resolved with the “unilateral abolition” of the Schengen agreement, in reference to the recent decision of the German government to reinstate land border controls with its neighboring countries.
In Hungarythe Prime Minister, Viktor Orbánknown for its ultra-nationalist and anti-immigration stance, welcomed the German decision, but Interior Minister Gergely Gulyás said Germany had destroyed the Schengen zone, first in 2015, when it allowed the massive entry of refugees, and now with the new border controls.
The European Commission has so far only recalled that the Schengen Borders Code allows Member States to introduce border controls in situations of threat, provided that it is considered “necessary and proportionate”.
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