In a recent interview with the German newspaper Bild, Saxony-Anhalt’s Minister-President Reiner Haseloff emphasized the importance of maintaining border controls with the option of turning back asylum seekers. According to Haseloff, a nation must be able to ensure the integrity of its own state borders, as guaranteed by the German Constitution.
Should the courts ultimately stop the turnbacks due to legal concerns, the government has the possibility to adapt the existing law to meet the principles and articles of the Constitution, as well as European treaties, Haseloff stated. The minister also warned that the democratic center in some eastern German states, such as Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg, no longer has an absolute majority.
In contrast, the Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate, Alexander Schweitzer of the Social Democratic Party, expressed a different view at a celebration marking the 40th anniversary of the Schengen Agreement in Luxembourg. He emphasized that border controls cannot be a permanent state of affairs.
Bundesrats President and Saarland’s Minister-President Anke Rehlinger of the Social Democratic Party also called for a return to a Schengen area without border controls, suggesting that a more intelligent solution is needed to ensure the effective functioning of border controls, rather than relying on the presence of non-existent barriers and the attention of border guards.