After the knife attack

Schallenberg welcomes border control debate

Interim Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg on the fringes of the foreign ministers' meeting(Bild: APA/AFP/Nicolas TUCAT)

Fired up by the knife attack by a 28-year-old Afghan in Aschaffenburg, Bavaria, CDU chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz has called for a "de facto entry ban" for illegal immigrants and permanent border controls. Austria's interim chancellor Alexander Schallenberg welcomes the rethink in the neighboring country. 

In response to a question from journalists at the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, Schallenberg said he was pleased that Germany was now showing more realism and pragmatism. The red-white-red head of government, Austria has been the country in continental Europe with the highest number of asylum applications per capita since 2015. "I am pleased about every EU state that approaches the matter with greater pragmatism," said Schallenberg.

Interim Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg on the sidelines of the meeting of foreign ministers(Bild: APA/AFP/Nicolas TUCAT)

CDU chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz(Bild: APA/AFP/Tobias SCHWARZ)

"Debate is going in the right direction"
However, he emphasized that the rules of the Schengen Code must still be adhered to. This regulates crossings at the internal and external borders of the so-called Schengen area. Schallenberg appealed for "joint solutions": "If each of us pulls up the drawbridges individually now, we will all be poorer and no one will be safer". However, the public debate in the European Union is finally moving in the right direction. 

German Vice-Chancellor warns of right-wing government
Meanwhile, German Vice-Chancellor and Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) issued an urgent warning on Sunday against a right-wing government coming to power in Germany. "If it can happen in Austria, it can also happen in Germany," Habeck said at the Green Party conference in Berlin. "And the decision as to whether this will happen is now up for election," the Green candidate for chancellor continued.