Saxony's interior minister welcomes more intensive border controls

Saxony's Interior Minister Armin Schuster (CDU) has welcomed the announcement of stricter border controls. "The intensification of border controls is a good day for Saxony - and a long overdue step that we and other CDU-led states have been demanding for a long time," said Schuster. The Saxony police will accompany this in the long term and will continue to expand and deepen the proven cooperation with the federal police in the future.

The new Federal Minister of the Interior, Alexander Dobrindt (CSU), had previously announced that more police officers would be deployed at Germany's land borders to ensure a reduction in irregular migration.

The temporary border controls under EU law were introduced at the border with Austria back in 2015 and were gradually extended to all sections of the border by the traffic light government. However, the then CDU chairman and current Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the then CSU regional group leader Dobrindt announced during the election campaign that they would tighten controls and turn back asylum seekers as soon as they took office.

The coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and SPD states: "In coordination with our European neighbors, we will also carry out rejections at the common borders for asylum applications." However, the CDU/CSU and SPD have not clarified whether "in consultation" means obtaining the consent of the neighbors or merely consulting them.