Germany is set to reintroduce temporary checks at all nine of its land borders on Monday, a move that has drawn criticism from some European partners but praise from the far right.
Berlin's embattled coalition government announced last week that tests already in place at borders with Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland would be extended to France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark.
The decision comes after a series of deadly knife attacks involving suspected asylum seekers and historic victories for the far-right, anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD) in two key state elections in eastern Germany.
The country's Interior Minister Nancy Fazer said the border checks would curb migration and “protect against the serious risks posed by radical Islamic terrorism and serious crime”, but critics say the checks are politically motivated and likely to have little effect.
Europe's passport-free Schengen area, which includes 25 EU member states plus four other countries, including Switzerland and Norway, allows free movement without border checks and is considered one of the EU's greatest achievements and a major economic asset.
Special border controls are permitted in exceptional circumstances to avert specific threats to national security or public policy. Currently, eight countries operate special border controls at certain borders due to the growing threat of terrorism or pressure on refugee capacity.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was the first to publicly criticise the German decision, calling it “unacceptable from a Polish point of view” and calling for more help from Berlin to secure the EU's external borders, rather than stronger controls inside the EU.
Warsaw proposed consultations with all EU member states bordering Germany to address the decision, which Tusk said was the result of “domestic political situations” and could lead to a “de facto wholesale suspension of Schengen”.
“Moving towards a logic of ad-hoc exemptions from Schengen with its border controls would undermine one of the fundamental achievements of the EU,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Thursday.
“Schengen cannot be abolished unilaterally,” Mitsotakis said. But Czech Interior Minister Vit Laksun was more optimistic, saying he did not expect any major changes because tests are largely random.
Far-right leaders rejoiced at the news: Geert Wilders of the Dutch Party for Freedom (PVV) said Berlin's decision was a “great idea” and asked when the Netherlands would follow suit, while Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said at X that “welcome to the club.”
Marine Le Pen of France's National Rally said: Her party proposed a “dual border system” (an external and internal border system) in the recent elections but was told it was not possible. “Now Germany is doing it,” she said. “When will France follow suit?”
Giorgia Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy party praised Berlin's decision, and Orban's chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, said the EU's loose external borders, combined with tougher internal ones, were “destroying freedom of movement.”
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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has defended the decision, with his fractured three-party coalition government trailing well behind the AfD and the centre-right opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in opinion polls a year before a federal election.
Speaking in parliament, with another crucial state election in Brandenburg likely to be won by the AfD, Chancellor Scholz said the measures were necessary and the government would “continue to do so even if relations with our neighbours become more difficult”.
It is not yet clear what impact the increased border checks will have, with Berlin promising to “work closely with neighbouring countries to minimise the disruption to daily life in border areas as much as possible”.
The Home Office insisted last week that the measures, which will initially last for six months, would be in line with existing border controls – meaning random spot checks and targeted checks of certain vehicles based on police intelligence.
Representatives of the freight transport industry say the increased inspections should not cause undue congestion and the associated economic losses, while cross-border workers' groups say they will be closely monitoring the situation.
Analysts say the tests, and plans to make it easier to deport people directly at the border, are more likely to increase tensions with Germany's neighbors if they lead authorities to send even more people back to their countries of origin.
