"Current threats"

Automatically stored draft

Vehicle check at the German-Polish border near Forst(Bild: APA/AFP/JENS SCHLUETER)

In order to curb the number of people entering the country without a visa or irregularly, the German government has ordered temporary controls at all national borders. Austria's Interior Minister Gerhard Karner has already reacted.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser cited the "continuing high overall burden on Germany" and the "protection of internal security against the current threats of Islamist terrorism and cross-border crime" as the reasons.

In recent months, several acts of violence with an Islamist background have occurred, further fueling the asylum debate.

Pressure from the CDU/CSU and electoral success of the AfD
In the course of the latest discussions, the AfD, which recently came first and second in state elections in Thuringia and Saxony, and the CDU/CSU increased the pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz's (SPD) traffic light coalition.

Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz reacts to pressure from the opposition parties.(Bild: APA/AFP/POOL/Ludovic MARIN)

Vehicle check at the German-Polish border near Forst(Bild: APA/AFP/JENS SCHLUETER)

The checks are to begin on September 16. Interior Minister Faeser (SPD) has given assurances that all measures will comply with EU law, according to German media reports. However, these would include the rejection of migrants. Stationary controls at the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland have already been in place since last year, and at the border with Austria since 2015. In practice, it is therefore also a matter of introducing controls at Germany's western and northern borders with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France.

Karner reminds Germans of "applicable law"
In this context, the Ministry of the Interior in Vienna has already reminded the Germans of "applicable law". Department head Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) made it clear on Monday afternoon: "Austria will not accept any people who are sent back from Germany. There is no room for maneuver!" He had therefore instructed the Federal Police Director "not to carry out any takeovers", said Karner.

Austria's Interior Minister Gerhard Karner emphasizes: "Austria will not accept any people who are sent back from Germany."(Bild: APA/ROBERT JAEGER)

In fact, people applying for asylum cannot simply be turned away informally at the border. It remains to be seen exactly what the German government's new proposal on refoulement will look like. In the past, there have been various ideas, for example that these should be extended to all foreigners without identity papers or to asylum seekers who have already been registered as asylum seekers in a country.