The Islamic attacks of the last month, the anger of public opinion also reflected in the vote in Thuringia and Saxony, the pressure of the opposition. Olaf Scholz's government has finally taken the long-awaited step of tightening its borders: starting from September 16, Berlin will extend the controls - already introduced in part for some time - to all the borders and crossings of the German territory to put a stop to the entry of irregular migrants and defend itself from the "grave dangers posed by Islamic terrorism".
A dutiful act, said the Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, arrived after a painful debate between the different souls of the majority. The decision was immediately notified to Brussels which, focused on the implementation of the new Pact for Migration and Asylum, finds itself increasingly in the crosshairs of the Twenty-Seven and their requests for less immigration, no longer coming only from the Mediterranean Club.
Ten days after the new security package on migrant pushbacks and the crackdown on knives launched in the aftermath of the attack - carried out by a Syrian - that shocked Solingen and the whole of Germany, the new measures did not come as a surprise.
The political pressure that pushed the German government to take this new step - two weeks before the call to the polls in Brandenburg on September 22 - is undeniable. The head of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, was clear immediately after the Solingen massacre, throwing down a gauntlet to Scholz: "If the government does not give guarantees on border controls and the rejection of all illegal migrants, there will be no more reason for dialogue with the opposition", was the ultimatum before which the chancellor defended himself by claiming to have brought about "the greatest turning point in the management of migration in the history of the last ten or twenty years".
An internal dispute destined to have repercussions also on the neighbors - nine countries - beyond the German border. And to extend to Brussels and the European Commission of Ursula von der Leyen, guardian of the protection of free movement and proud of the historic agreement on the new Pact for Migration and Asylum which, with its flexible solidarity, risks being nipped in the bud, going the way of the Dublin regulation.
(Online Union)
