Despite massive criticism:

Germany now controls all external borders

German police officers stop a man at the Franco-German border in Kehl on Monday.

(Bild: AFP)

Border controls have been in place at all of Germany's external borders since Monday morning. The German government had justified this with a high burden of illegal migration. However, not all neighboring countries show understanding for this. 

Random checks have been in place at Germany's land borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland since last October, and at the border with Austria since 2015.

Now the borders with France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark and the Netherlands are also being added. 

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Tighter border controls until the end of February 2025 for the time being
Anyone wishing to enter Germany must be prepared for the police to ask to see their papers. Officers will also check vans and trucks and see what they are carrying. All of this only happens on a random basis, so not everyone will be stopped. These stricter border controls will initially remain in place until February 28, 2025.

"The migration situation is worrying"
Germany's Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) justifies the move with the many refugees who have recently arrived in Germany. She has written a letter to the EU Commission. It states that the migration situation is worrying and there is too little accommodation for the people. The already tense situation has become even worse.

Faeser is also reacting to the attack in Solingen. Suspected perpetrators of violence from abroad should be prevented from entering the country if possible. The Interior Minister therefore wants to better control illegal migration, as she writes.

Criticism from Germany's neighboring countries
In Germany's neighboring countries, the stricter border controls are not met with much enthusiasm. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the plan unacceptable.

Criticism also came from Austria. The government in Vienna announced: If Germany now wanted to turn back more people at the border with Austria , then Austria would not be prepared to take them back either.

Austria's Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) announced his opposition to the German border plans. "Austria will not accept any people who are turned back from Germany. There is no room for maneuver! That is the law. Refoulement within the framework of internal border controls is not permitted under EU law."

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/APA, AFP/DPA)

Juncker concerned: "End of the Schengen logic"
Former EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker also criticized the expansion of border controls on Deutschlandfunk radio. Although he understands this, he said that if the controls take on a systematic character, this would put an end to the Schengen logic. He would have preferred an agreement between all EU interior ministers and, according to Juncker, a dose of European common sense.

Only Orban praises German border controls
By contrast, the reaction from Hungary was very different: Prime Minister Viktor Orban - who has been trying for years to make any migration from outside the EU to Hungary impossible - wrote to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on X: "Welcome to the club!

Orban did not specify which club he was referring to. After all, he is the only national-conservative head of government in the EU who speaks out so clearly against immigration and also regularly breaks EU law when it comes to migration.