The head of German diplomacy warned on Saturday against the hybrid war waged by Russia, which could seek to divide Europe by also promoting an influx of refugees on its territory.
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“This is not just a war fought with weapons. It is also conducted [sur le front de] energy and, for that, we have found an answer”, declared Annalena Baerbock at the congress of her ecologist party, which takes place in Bonn, in the west of Germany.
But she expects the war will also be increasingly “waged with fear and division, and that is precisely what we must avoid”.
The minister fears in particular an influx of refugees from countries other than Ukraine, “because this war is hybrid and other countries are taking part in it”, accusing Serbia of contributing to a sharp increase in the arrival of migrants in Europe.
The Member States of the European Union (EU) as a whole criticize this Balkan country for being a gateway to the EU for Turkish, Indian, Tunisian, Cuban and Burundian migrants, who have not need a visa to go there.
Refusing a situation “where people are used as a weapon”, Germany is in contact in particular with the Czech Republic and Slovakia in order to find solutions to counter this de facto reactivation of the “Balkan route”.
Serbia, a candidate for EU membership since 2012, but also close to Russia, is on this route, which goes from Greece to Hungary or Croatia via North Macedonia or Albania .
Hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing the war, Afghans or Iraqis had borrowed it during the great migration crisis of 2015.
Since 2016 and the closure of the borders, the number of crossings had dropped considerably, but they are again on the rise this year.
Germany alone hosted nearly a million refugees in 2015, a massive influx that also contributed to the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, this country has already recorded the entry into its territory of more than a million refugees, the vast majority of whom are women and children of Ukrainian nationality.