Besides Germany, Schengen members currently operating controls on particular borders include Austria, which cites Ukraine-related security threats and pressure on asylum to check arrivals from Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Hungary.
Denmark, citing terror threats related to the war in Gaza and Russian espionage risks, is carrying out checks on land and sea transit from Germany, and France is checking Schengen zone arrivals on the grounds of an increased terror threat.
Italy, Norway, Sweden, Slovenia and Finland are also operating border checks, variously citing terrorist activity, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, Russian intelligence activity, increased migration flows and organised crime in the Balkans.
So everybody already does it, why shouldn’t Germany do it, too?
Germany is the large, economically vital bit placed smack-dab in the middle of the EU. Also, this achieves literally nothing positive. It won’t stop terror attacks but it will hurt the economy and it will help validate right-wing extremist talking points.
Not changing anything of the current procedures will send the impression of helplessness and inaction to growing parts of the society. While I‘m not happy with this blame game, doing nothing is out of the question for the Ampel since even the Union is taking populist narratives and helping rightwing parties by constantly demanding improvements.
If we had a stronger chancelor, they could challenge the narrative. They could deliver the usual “terrorists want us to be frightened but we are a strong open society”, like Merkel did after the vastly more deadly Breitscheidplatz attack and find out what went wrong together with e.g. police and the asylum residence in the background. What the coalition is doing right now is just eroding trust in the state and the government on the part of migrants and bio-Germans alike.
Not “do nothing” (although that would arguably still be the better option), but rather “do something actually useful” (like actually find out what went wrong where and whether you can do something about violent extremism, like, say, regulating TikTok to behave more accountably). This is worse than useless.
So everybody already does it, why shouldn’t Germany do it, too?
Germany is the large, economically vital bit placed smack-dab in the middle of the EU. Also, this achieves literally nothing positive. It won’t stop terror attacks but it will hurt the economy and it will help validate right-wing extremist talking points.
Not changing anything of the current procedures will send the impression of helplessness and inaction to growing parts of the society. While I‘m not happy with this blame game, doing nothing is out of the question for the Ampel since even the Union is taking populist narratives and helping rightwing parties by constantly demanding improvements.
If we had a stronger chancelor, they could challenge the narrative. They could deliver the usual “terrorists want us to be frightened but we are a strong open society”, like Merkel did after the vastly more deadly Breitscheidplatz attack and find out what went wrong together with e.g. police and the asylum residence in the background. What the coalition is doing right now is just eroding trust in the state and the government on the part of migrants and bio-Germans alike.
With new EU asylum and migration regulations only coming in effect in 2026 (two years, although it is one of the most important topics in a lot of EU countries and rightwing on the rise everywhere), this is simply taking too long to do absolutely nothing locally. https://commission.europa.eu/news/setting-out-plan-put-migration-and-asylum-pact-practice-2024-06-12_en
Not “do nothing” (although that would arguably still be the better option), but rather “do something actually useful” (like actually find out what went wrong where and whether you can do something about violent extremism, like, say, regulating TikTok to behave more accountably). This is worse than useless.