Additional border controls
Germany They already have temporary ones border controls with Polandthe Czech Republic, Switzerland and Austria. From September 16, checks will also be introduced for the next six months at border crossings with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Luxembourg, the Interior Ministry said in a statement in Berlin on Monday.
Germany temporarily expands border controls on other borders / Bloomberg
The ministry added that with this move Police will be able to organize stationary and mobile inspectionsand will also have the right to send people away empty-handed. “This is to protect against the dangers Islamist terror and serious cross-border crime” – was quoted in the statement Interior Minister Nancy Faeser.
“It will still be very important for us working in close cooperation with our neighbors and ensuring that the impact on commuters and everyday life in border regions is as small as possible,” she said, adding that the government had notified European Commission about new controls.
East Germans unhappy with Berlin’s migration policy
Opinion polls show that frustration government’s immigration policy i asylum policy was the main reason why parties from the far right and left achieved high results in two regional elections in eastern Germany this month.
The heated debate on immigration was sparked by the deaths of three people in knife attack in the city of Solingen last month, a little over a week before the elections in Thuringia and SaxonyThe perpetrator of the attack, a Syrian who escaped deportation after rejection of asylum applicationis in custody and is accused of murdering three people, attacking and wounding another eight people, and belonging to a terrorist organization.
Far Right and Left Against Immigration
Far right An alternative to Germanythe AfD, came first in the elections in Thuringia and second in neighbouring Saxony. It is already clear that it will almost certainly not join any governing coalition, because all other parties refuse to cooperate with it.
Sahra Wagenknecht Alliancea new far-left party that also wants limit the influx of immigrantswon a larger share of the vote than Scholz’s Social Democrats and the Greens. The other party in the ruling alliance in Berlin, the Free Democrats, barely registered in both regions.
AfD and BSW could win regional elections again
The AfD and the Wagenknecht party, known by its acronym BSW, are expected to win again regional elections, which will take place September 22 in the eastern state of BrandenburgWhere in Potsdam Scholz has his constituency.
Net migration to Germany fell dramatically last year. / Bloomberg
Scholz’s pre-election promises
To counter the rise of extreme political forces, Scholz and officials in his government, as well as members of the main conservative opposition, have intensified their rhetoric on immigration in recent months. In June, after a series of brutal attacks, Scholz said that Germany to send migrantswho have committed serious crimes, back to their homelandsincluding Afghanistan and Syria. After the attack in Solingen, he promised to tighten weapons laws and speed up the deportation of people whose asylum applications were rejected.
Germany’s conservatives and far-right lead in national polls, with less than a third of voters supporting the three ruling parties / Bloomberg
Scholz’s party on the defensive
On a national scale, the total support for Scholz’s party and its two partners has fallen to a record low just over a year before the next scheduled general election. The Conservative CDU/CSU coalition is leading with a result of about 32 percent, and AfD is in second place with a score of about 17 percent. SPD Scholza my ok. 15 proc., Greens 11 proc., a FDP 5 percent. The threshold for entry into the German parliament is precisely 5 percent.
Faeser invited CDU/CSU MPs on Tuesday and representatives of regional authorities for additional talks on immigration policy.
