Two decades ago, the inauguration of a fresh bridge connecting the German town of Görlitz and its Polish counterpart Zgorzelec, situated over the River Neisse, was marked by music, cheering and some tearful sentiments. The accession of Poland into the EU on the first of May, 2004 – and its inclusion into the Schengen Zone that allowed passport-free travel – put an end to pre-existing differences. This led to improved traffic due to the cessation of border checks on the river crossing.
However, from the 13th of October last year, border checks have resumed and with them, long queues of traffic. An individual named Hans, who is in his fifties and works as a hauler on this Polish-German route, described the situation as particularly extreme on Monday mornings.
There’s an increase in frustration due to the return of German border checks in a region that was once the hub of the EU’s open-border Schengen area. Implementation of checks on all national borders, including those of France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium may pose tight traffic from the next Monday onward.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk condemned this unilateral action as a significant violation of the Schengen Agreement on Tuesday. Despite the term of checks planned to last for six months, the European Commission’s spokesperson insisted that exceptions should be minimal. For nearly ten years, Brussels has overlooked the increase in exceptions from Germany. Unlike before, border checks have become a standard here, in what was the heart of the Schengen area of Europe.
During the migration crisis in 2015, Danish border police renewed passport checks on the border with Germany while German police also conducted random checks there and on the Bavarian border with Austria. These provisional controls reduced the number of irregular new arrivals, but immigrants and traffickers quickly discovered alternative paths. As a result, Germany reinstated additional checkpoints on the Swiss, Czech and Polish borders in October.
Just one month prior, Nancy Faeser, the Federal Minister of the Interior from the Social Democratic Party, objected to such stationary checkpoints claiming them to be inefficient and lacking practicality. She expressed concern over regular individuals such as caregivers and tradespersons facing daily challenges on German public television.
A month back, she decided to reverse her decision and, as per her department, the new inspections implemented since October have led to approximately 30,000 entry rejections. However, this number is dwarfed by the staggering 300,000 individuals who sought asylum in Germany last year, the 124,000 “illicit entrants” during that timeframe, and the remaining 50,000 people despite unsuccessful asylum applications.
Within this last group, there exists a Syrian man suspected of fatally assaulting three individuals at a city festival in Solingen the previous month, an assault that left an additional eight injured.
This assault, along with the exposure of the accused’s ability to avoid deportation, intensified state elections in the East primarily focused on migration and safety issues. A record number of voters endorsed the hardline anti-immigrant stance of Alternative for Germany, leading to the first far-right victory in Thuringia since the time of the Nazis.
Having been startled by these outcomes – and anticipating another potential AfD surge in Brandenburg before the state election on September 22nd – the Berlin coalition has now swiftly acted to transform what was once unfeasible into a reality.
To ensure compliance with EU law, Faeser is suggesting that these border checks are necessary to “manage uncontrolled migration” and “guard internal security”.
‘Berlin’s federal government is allowing itself to be influenced by fear, concerning Alternative for Germany and its xenophobic demands’ opined Clara Bünger, Left Party MP in Bundestag.
This pronouncement was also made in anticipation of an approaching high-level migration summit on Tuesday where the opposition Christian Democratic Union Party’s leader Friedrich Merz has advocated a tougher stance on immigration following the Solingen attacks, insisting on expedited deportation of asylum seekers already logged in another EU member state under the so-called Dublin rules.
On Tuesday, the governing coalition offered the CDU with suggestions for “rapid processing methods” in border areas, including confinement in local jails, to deter migrants from advancing further into Germany until prior EU asylum applications have been dismissed.
“We are ready to do whatever it takes to fix the migration crisis,” stated federal justice minister Marco Buschmann.
Merz and his central-rightist counterparts retreated from the Tuesday discussions, adamant that the proposed plans were insufficient and expressing doubts on any future surge in expulsions.
The opposition leader criticised the ruling coalition, accusing them of surrendering to irregular migration issues and being incapacitated and rudderless.
The proposition for increased border surveillance has sparked disagreements within Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s alliance, with Ricarda Lang, the Green Party co-leader, cautioning against the potential havoc and discord caused by unilateral actions in Europe.
Despite the lack of support from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Faeser maintained her resolution to implement the advocated plans for border detention facilities and swift expulsions.
Amidst escalating migration tensions within the squabbling Scholz coalition, anticipations in Berlin for a relaxation of Germany’s provisional border restrictions before June 2026 are sparse. Following the plan, during this period the EU migration and asylum pact is to be enacted, boasting shared regulations, a unified database, and other EU-wide norms on the contentious immigration matter.
In the self-proclaimed “Europe City Görlitz-Zgorzelec,” local constabularies and the opposition argue that traffickers have altered their routes in response to border scrutinies, while immigration steadily persists.
For Clara Bünger, a member of parliament for Görlitz and part of the opposition Left Party, the latest schemes for border controls are mere political posturing.
Bünger, the Left’s parliamentary spokesperson for justice and migration affairs, commented that Berlin’s federal government is falling prey to fearmongering, particularly from the AfD and their xenophobic demands. She claimed that the ongoing controls are in violation of European law, subsequently damaging the cornerstone of cooperation among member nations.