Goodbye, ‘Welcome Culture.’ Germany bows to far-right pressure and seals borders

CNN
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In Frankfurt (Oder), an ironic sign reads: “Frankfurt Oder/Słubice – without borders.” Słubice is a Polish city located on the other side of the fast-flowing Oder River, which marks the beginning of the German Federal Republic.

A bridge over the river connects the two European nations. A single line of cars waits patiently for entry from Poland. German police, some armed with machine guns and wearing reflective vests, wave cars through or stop those they deem suspicious.

“It happens every day here that people do not meet the entry requirements for Germany, and maybe even the Schengen area, and have to be subjected to further police measures,” says Tom Knie, a young-looking police officer, between checks, referring to the passport-free zone in the European Union.

This is now the new reality on all of Germany’s land borders.

On September 16, Berlin ordered the “temporary reintroduction of border controls” on Germany’s borders with Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France and Denmark.

This decision is an extension of the controls in force since October on the borders with Poland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Switzerland.

The reason for the reintroduction of these controls is largely Germany’s internal problems, which are interconnected, but each of them puts increasing pressure on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his governing coalition. The most serious pressure comes from the growing and increasingly self-confident far right in Germany.

But they also mark the end of a certain era of Germany’s liberal migration policy – ​​Wilkommenskultur, or the “welcome culture” – initiated by Scholz’s predecessor, Angela Merkel in 2015 and questioning the legitimacy of the entire Schengen Area.

Terror, Migration and the AfD

As if to remind us of the importance that the Alternative for Germany (AfD) attaches to securing Germany’s borders, election posters for the party hang on lampposts along the road to Frankfurt (Oder).

One bears the words “WE PROTECT YOU!” and the eagle, the federal symbol of Germany, flies over a garbage can containing a traffic light – the symbol of the coalition government, known as the “Traffic Light Coalition” – and, more insidious, a mosque.

A series of terrorist attacks ahead of key state elections in right-wing regions brought the migration issue to the forefront of the recent election.

In June, a 25-year-old Afghan killed a policeman in Manheim, and a few weeks later, a 26-year-old Syrian killed three people in stabbings in Solingen. Both incidents were exploited by the AfD.

One of the party’s most controversial figures, Bjoern Hoecke, called on X to “end this wrong path of forced multiculturalism”.

In early September, the AfD became the first far-right party since the Nazi era to win a state election, with victory in Thuringia, a former eastern German state, closely followed by victory in Saxony.

The AfD has long campaigned on a largely anti-immigration list. AfD co-chair Alice Weidel has said in the past that Germany has become “a country without borders where anyone can come and we do nothing about it.”

Their success, combined with the rise of the far left, which also takes an anti-immigration stance, contributed to weakening support for Scholz and ultimately forced the chancellor to take action, particularly on the issue of migration.

Speaking in the Bundestag before the border restrictions were introduced, Scholz said: “We are doing this, even though it will be difficult with our neighbours… I think we have to endure this. Now we have to endure this dispute.”

Raphael Bossong, a researcher at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, told CNN that pandering to right-wing populists won’t win elections. He said that “mainstream parties can’t ignore the fact that there is a public perception that migration needs to be more controlled, but if we really start adopting the positions that the AfD has taken, it will eventually fail.”

There is a risk that Scholz and his government will face even greater misfortune this weekend, as Brandenburg also goes to the polls to elect its regional leaders.

Current forecasts indicate that the AfD will win 28.4% of the vote, overtaking Scholz’s Social Democratic Party, which is in second place in the polls with 24.7%.

The election result could easily mean more trouble for Scholz and a further weakening of his coalition, as well as increasing calls for new federal elections earlier than next September.

The call for increased controls at Germany’s borders also represents a significant change in European Union policy vis-à-vis Merkel.

In 2015, the former German chancellor, who has been in office for many years and enjoys enormous popularity, opened Germany’s borders to migrants fleeing their homes – at that time mainly Syrians, due to the civil war in the country.

German government migration data shows that 13.7 million migrants from outside Germany came to Germany between 2015 and 2023. In the same period before 2015, the figure was just 5.8 million.

Merkel’s moves went down in history as Wilkommenskulturand and set Germany apart internationally for its liberal migration policy.

Gerlad Knaus, then a migration adviser in Merkel’s government, told CNN that “Germany was a pillar of the European and global refugee system” but now believes the current German government is “falling into a trap.”

He said the promise to control illegal migration at the border would be impossible to fulfil but would instead “raise expectations that would lead to demands to actually build fences that would ultimately turn countries into fortresses”.

As Knaus said, the current government “is faced with a demand to regulate and control the movement of people, (and) the government accepts the validity of this demand (from the far right), but there is no policy that will work.”

For Knaus, the prospect of a change in German policy raises further concerns.

“If you promise to control an emotional issue like migration and what you propose doesn’t work, not only will you not achieve your goal, but you will set yourself up for failure, which will be exploited by those who are willing to go much, much further,” Knaus said.