Have the article read by OpenAI (Beta). Please note that AI translations may take some time to process.Brussels (dpa) – Austria’s acting chancellor, Alexander Schallenberg of the centre-right People’s Party (ÖVP), on Monday criticised proposals from Germany’s conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz to bring back border controls.
Merz, the head of Germany’s centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has demanded border controls as part of a package to crack down on irregular migration.
But all of Germany’s neighbouring countries, including Austria, are members of the visa-free Schengen Zone, which was supposed to remove the need to internal border controls except in exceptional circumstances.
The Schengen area includes all European Union member states – except Ireland and Cyprus – as well as Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It guarantees the free movement of more than 425 EU citizens.
Schallenberg said on Monday that he welcomes a reconsideration of Germany’s stance on migration, but that the country must stick to the Schengen rules.
Schallenberg is in power in Austria until the formation of a new government. The head of the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ), Herbert Kickl, has been tasked with forming a new government after his party won elections last autumn.
“We all know that we need joint solutions,” Schallenberg said. “If we all just pull up the drawbridges individually, we will all be poorer and no one will be safer.”
Schallenberg, who is Austria’s foreign minister in addition to acting chancellor, also pointed to current Schengen rules that require countries to determine where migrants first entered the EU before sending anyone back.
Merz has demanded that Germany change policy to have border guards turn back migrants trying to cross into Germany from another Schengen country in order to claim asylum. (27 January)
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