The checks began on Monday and are to last for six months. Berlin is hoping to combat illegal immigration. Local residents, travellers and other cross-border workers are divided over the reintroduction of checks at all German borders.
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Since Monday, September 16, Germany has re-established controls at all of its borders. The system, which is to last at least six months, is intended to combat illegal immigration. As announced, controls began at 7 a.m., particularly in Kehl, Germany, on the Europe Bridge that spans the Rhine and marks the border with France.
Early in the day, a Flixbus that runs between Strasbourg and Budapest was stopped. Like the fifteen people on board, Yolande presented her passport to the police. “I find this very important, she believes. Currently, we only hear about insecurity, we need something like this because the bandits are everywhere. It is for their security too.”
Wearing fluorescent yellow vests with “Polizei” on their backs, officers also patrol the platforms of Kehl station and the tram stop arriving from Strasbourg. 50,000 French, Alsatian and Mosellan residents work in Germany every day, and not all of them appreciate the return of controls.
“We have been used to moving freely for quite a long time and that is rather positive. In the European spirit, it is not good news.”
A local resident in Kehlto franceinfo
“Putting a border between two countries that are doing everything to get closer, with a tram, with bus lines, it’s shocking”believes this resident. “This follows the latest election results in Germany, we can clearly feel that there is pressure from the extreme right demanding measures. And we have the impression that they are giving in because public opinion is there and waiting,” tells another.
Traffic at the border has been flowing smoothly since Monday morning. Kehl police spokesman Dieter Hutt promises checks “smart and targeted”. “We know where illegal immigration comes from. Most often, it is on long-distance journeys, on buses, trains and trams. That is where we concentrate our checks. Cross-border traffic must continue as normal, as must international goods transport.”
Last October, Berlin had already re-established controls with Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria and Switzerland. Since Monday morning, the 3,700 km of border that Germany shares with nine countries has been under surveillance. The stated objective of the German authorities is to put a stop to illegal immigration. This is a turnaround from the welcoming culture of Angela Merkel’s Germany during the refugee crisis of 2015-2016.
The situation is no longer controllable, according to the Minister of the Interior, Germany no longer has the means to welcome refugees. Accommodation, schools, and healthcare facilities are saturated. In the first seven months of the year, Germany recorded 50,000 illegal entries. And then, there have been several attacks, sometimes deadly, in recent weeks, in Solingen, in Munich, committed by radicalized people. The extreme right is taking advantage of this delicate context, with a rekindled debate on immigration, to obtain record results, as in the two regional elections, in Saxony and Thuringia.
For Olaf Scholz’s coalition, it is therefore a question of trying to regain control in the face of the extreme right and a sometimes very worried public opinion.