Germany’s ruling SPD in favour of extending border controls

The co-chair of Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) on Monday said he was in favour of extending temporary controls along the country’s land borders to curb irregular migration.

Speaking at a high-level meeting of German media chiefs hosted by dpa in Berlin, Lars Kingbeil said that the controls were particularly effective in “the fight against people smuggling, and that is why I think it makes sense to extend them again.”

Federal police began conducting checks at Germany’s land borders to France, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark on September 16 in a bid by the centre-left government to reduce the number of irregular arrivals.

Random checks have been in place at the borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland since mid-October 2023, and they were introduced at the German-Austrian border back in autumn 2015.

The measure is controversial, not least because Germany, like most EU countries, is part of the passport-free Schengen area where border controls were officially abolished decades ago.

Calls to intensify border controls have grown louder in recent weeks, with parliamentary elections less than a fortnight away.

The conservative opposition CDU/CSU bloc in particular has been pushing hard for a crackdown on migration following a deadly knife attack in Bavaria in which a failed asylum seeker was arrested for the crime.

CDU leader Friedrich Merz’s willingness to use votes from the far right to pass a non-binding motion calling for all migrants to be turned away at the country’s borders has sparked outrage from left-wing parties, including the SPD.

Nevertheless, with surveys suggesting that migration ranks high among voters’ concerns, the SPD has at the same time sought to highlight its efforts made during its time in government to curb the number of new arrivals.

SPD co-chair Klingbeil on Monday also called for Syrian refugees convicted of a criminal offence to be deported.

“If 6,000 Syrian doctors have to leave our hospitals and medical practices, then we would look pretty stupid,” said Klingbeil. “But it is clear to me that offenders should return to Syria.”