Germany could turn asylum seekers away at the border in huge numbers regardless of any agreements it has with EU neighbours under new plans hinted at by the incoming government.
Friedrich Merz is the leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He is expected to be announced as the new Chancellor of Germany in the coming weeks as his party could form a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD).
Germany, which has Europe’s largest economy and population, also hosts the highest number of refugees and asylum seekers, with around 2.5 million, according to the UN.
Immigration was a key battleground in recent national elections, which saw a rise of the anti-immigration far-right Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD), especially in the former communist east of the country.
Mr Merz has said the surge in popularity for the far-right was a warning for the nation, and his party’s deputy leader, Jens Spahn, said talks between the coalition parties have included immigration-tackling measures.
Mr Spahn told the Table.Briefings podcast that Germany’s decision over who is allowed into the country would not be “dependent” on other countries.
He said Germany would not be “making ourselves dependent on the consent of the other countries”, adding that existing rules don’t specify there has to be agreement between EU nations but that each nation must operate in “coordination”.
In a statement matching the views of some political figures in the UK, Mr Spahn said that if Germany breached EU migration law with any new decisions, then the country may be forced to leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)
Despite talk of potentially bold moves to combat the migration crisis in Europe, it’s not clear if countries neighbouring Germany would accept any asylum seekers rejected at the border.
Austria, which lies to the south of Germany, said it would not take in anyone turned away by its larger neighbour.
AfD secured more than 20% of the vote in Germany’s national elections, with voters seemingly shifting to the right after a series of terror attacks in the country, which are believed to have been carried out by immigrants.
On Saturday, it was announced that Mr Merz’s CDU and the centre-left SPD would form a coalition administration after talks.
According to the UN, Germany has become the third largest refugee-hosting country in the world and the largest in the EU, with 2.5 million refugees from all over the world, including more than 1 million refugees from Ukraine.
However, there is also a significant backlog with the processing of asylum applications, with around 700,000 Syrian asylum seekers living in the country who are still yet to have any definitive status.
