Germany Suspends Schengen, Immigration Repercussion Across The Entire EU

Schengen Zone

The Schengen Area (English: /ˈʃɛŋən/ SHENG-ən, Luxembourgish: [ˈʃæŋən]) is an area encompassing 29 European countries that have officially abolished border controls at their mutual borders.

Immigration Crackdown

Reuters reports Germany Tightens Controls at All Borders in Immigration Crackdown.

Germany’s government announced plans to impose tighter controls at all of the country’s land borders in what it called an attempt to tackle irregular migration and protect the public from threats such as Islamist extremism.
The controls within what is normally a wide area of free movement – the European Schengen zone – will start on Sept. 16 and initially last for six months, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Monday.

The government has also designed a scheme enabling authorities to reject more migrants directly at German borders, Faeser said, without adding details on the controversial and legally fraught move.

The restrictions are part of a series of measures Germany has taken to toughen its stance on irregular migration in recent years following a surge in arrivals, in particular people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East.

Recent deadly knife attacks in which the suspects were asylum seekers have stoked concerns over immigration. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a knife attack in the western city of Solingen that killed three people in August.

Polls show it is also voters’ top concern in the state of Brandenburg, which is set to hold elections in two weeks.

Scholz and Faeser’s centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) are fighting to retain control of the government there, in a vote billed as a test of strength of the SPD ahead of next year’s federal election.

“The intention of the government seems to be to show symbolically to Germans and potential migrants that the latter are no longer wanted here,” said Marcus Engler at the German Centre for Integration and Migration Research.

“We Can Do This”

Does anyone recall Chancellor Angela Merkel’s comment on immigration? For discussion, please see my September 5, 2016 post Merkel humiliated in 3rd Place Finish to AfD in State Elections; Irony of the Day

Her highness, chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a humiliating loss in German state elections on Sunday.

Merkel came in third place, to the anti-immigration, eurosceptic AfD party in her own home state in statewide elections.

Peak Merkel

Also recall my June 15, 2018 post Merkel Coalition About to Collapse Over Immigration: Peak Merkel Revisited

Horst Seehofer, Germany’s Interior Minister, threatens to start the automatic rejection of refugees by executive order – which would be the end of the coalition.

The government crisis was triggered by two unrelated events – the murder of a young girl by an immigrant, and a scandal about the granting of refugee status to illegal immigrants