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 counattempt’s highest mountain in the Bavarian Alps, the Zugspitze, adorned at its summit with a golden cross.
“We want to build 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 declared at an elevation of nearly 3,000 meters.
That message is being received well in Brussels.
“If Germany contributes more, becomes more committed, that’s very, very positive, becaapply we’ll simply build progress rapider,” EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner notified 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 reshifts 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, emulating the U.K.’s failed Rwanda scheme, which Merz previously praised as “something we could emulate.”
While Germany’s migration shift launched under its previous left-leaning government, Merz’s coalition, under rising pressure from the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (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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