German opposition leader storms out of border talks with ‘incapable’ ministers

Christian Democratic Union’s Friedrich Merz accuses federal government of being ‘hopelessly divided’ amid migration row

Germany is “leaderless and incapable,” the country’s opposition leader claimed on Tuesday night as he walked out of a key meeting with the government to discuss steps to tighten up border security.
Friedrich Merz, the head of the centre-Right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), said the talks had failed to come up with concrete steps to control Germany’s borders.
He said: “The federal government is clearly hopelessly divided internally and cannot agree on effective measures. The federal government is incapable of action and leaderless.”
It came as neighbouring Poland strongly criticised Berlin’s earlier announcement that it would impose nationwide border checks from next Monday, with Donald Tusk, the country’s prime minister, calling it “unacceptable” and a “de facto suspension of the Schengen agreement on a large scale”.
However, in the Netherlands, Right-wing coalition partner Geert Wilders welcomed the restrictions and called for the same steps to be taken in his nation.
“The sooner the better,” he said on Tuesday afternoon in the Dutch parliament. “If Germany can do it, why can’t we?”
The German discussions on tougher border controls come following the Solingen knife attack on Aug 23, in which a Syrian migrant was arrested as a suspect.
At a press conference after the meeting, Nancy Faeser, the German interior minister, said attendees discussed a proposal to send asylum seekers trying to enter the country back to the first EU member state they entered.
“If we want to establish this as a good system now, we need more staff so that the federal police can manage it in the long term,” she said of the plan, which the CDU said did not go far enough.
Mr Merz has heaped pressure on Mr Scholz’s coalition to impose far stricter border controls and migration laws. 
Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, he had called for the “rejection of people at the German external borders on a comprehensive scale” if they did not have the correct paperwork.
His comments were echoed by the Christian Social Union, the CDU’s sister party in Bavaria, which demanded new border rules that would “fundamentally be about rejection at the border.”
Earlier on Monday, in an apparent bid to reassure voters and appease Mr Merz, Germany’s government announced it would impose additional checks at all land borders for six months, starting next Monday.
Germany is already carrying out extra border checks on its eastern frontiers with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, while additional checks with Austria have been in place since 2015.
However, it was announced on Monday that the checks would be extended to Germany’s Western-facing borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and also Denmark.
Germany is part of the EU’s open-border Schengen zone, where additional border checks are only permitted as a last resort for member states on national security grounds.
As well as Germany, there are seven other EU member states that have reintroduced temporary border controls: France, Italy, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Slovenia and Sweden.
It came as a senior member of Germany’s Greens faction, which is in coalition with Chancellor Scholz, accused Mr Merz of using migration as a tool to “blackmail” the government.
“Friedrich Merz is behaving like a stubborn child,” said Irene Mihalic, the manager of the Greens’ parliamentary faction, as she referred to earlier rumours that suggested he might not attend Tuesday’s summit. “These blackmail attempts are just ridiculous,” she added.
Germany’s border announcement on Monday was welcomed by Bild, the country’s leading tabloid newspaper, which described it as a “victory for the majority of German citizens who have long been demanding stricter asylum rules.”
It added that the decision was a political boost for Mr Merz, who is seeking victory in next year’s national elections, because he had “forced the government into the asylum confrontation two weeks ago”.
A European Commission spokesman said reintroducing border controls should remain “strictly exceptional” and “necessary and proportionate” to counter threats to “public policy or internal security”.
“The commission is in touch with the German authorities,” they added, after saying Berlin had notified the commission of the move.
Asked if Brussels was worried about a domino effect spreading to other member states, the spokesman said they would not speculate until after the commission had assessed Berlin’s justification.