Meanwhile, in #Germany...
Germany is now leading the charge on #Europe’s AntiImmigration turn
#ChancellorMerz’s new hardline course promises to accelerate the EU’s #rightward pivot on migration as the bloc prepares to implement tough measures.
By Nette Nöstlinger
July 31, 2025 5:54 pm CET
BERLIN — "Past German governments sought to temper Europe’s most hardline impulses on migration. Now, under Chancellor #FriedrichMerz, Berlin is vying to lead Europe’s anti-immigration charge.
"The stark shift in Germany’s migration stance under its new government promises to accelerate the EU’s #HardRight turn on migration as the bloc prepares to implement a series of new measures aimed at drastically reducing the number of asylum seekers entering Europe — and #deporting more of those who do make it. As European leaders negotiate on how to put these measures into place, those from some of the EU’s most hardline countries are welcoming Germany’s new role.
" 'Germany is leading in some of these very important talks,' Kaare Dybvad, #Denmark’s immigration minister, told POLITICO. 'We’re happy about that.'
"In a highly symbolic example of how Germany’s government is now seeking to propel Europe’s migration shift rather than moderate it, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt recently hosted counterparts from several European countries with tough migration stances — including #Austria, Denmark and #Poland — on his country’s highest mountain in the Bavarian Alps, the Zugspitze, adorned at its summit with a golden cross.
" 'We want to make it clear that Germany is no longer in the brakeman’s cab when it comes to migration issues in Europe but is part of the driving force,' Dobrindt said at an elevation of nearly 3,000 meters.
"That message is being received well in #Brussels [#Belgium].
" 'If Germany contributes more, becomes more committed, that’s very, very positive, because we’ll simply make progress faster,' EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner told POLITICO from the sidelines of the summit in #Bavaria. 'And that’s why I’m very pleased that the German government has chosen this path and is also strongly supporting the Commission in implementing the things we’ve put forward.'
"Germany’s new willingness to lead Europe’s anti-immigration front removes one key obstacle preventing European countries from enacting policy proposals that were until recently deemed beyond the pale. Those include plans to deport migrants to third countries and to process asylum claims outside the EU, copying the #UK’s failed #Rwanda scheme, which Merz previously praised as 'something we could emulate.'
"While Germany’s migration shift began under its previous left-leaning government, Merz’s coalition, under rising pressure from the anti-immigration #AlternativeForGermany (#AfD) — now the largest opposition party in Germany’s Bundestag — is taking a far harder course to stem the defection of conservative voters to the far right."
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