On Monday, Germany’s government announced plans to impose tighter controls at all of the country’s land borders in what it called an attempt to tackle irregular migration and protect the public from threats such as Islamist extremism.
The controls will start on September 16 and initially last for six months, the German interior ministry said in a statement.
During a meeting of the heads of Polish diplomatic missions on Tuesday, Tusk said: “We will reach out in the coming hours to other countries affected by Berlin’s decision to tighten border controls to urgently consult on actions at the EU level regarding this issue.”
He added that “such actions [by Berlin] are unacceptable from the Polish point of view.”
Exasperation in Warsaw
Relations between Poland and Germany have become warmer since Tusk’s pro-European coalition came to power in December, but there is a sense of exasperation in Warsaw at Berlin's reluctance to commit to joint European Union financing for defense and strengthening the bloc's eastern border.
Tusk said Germany’s latest decision on border controls in practice meant the suspension of the free-movement Schengen zone on a large scale.
He also said that the decision should be seen as a response to the mistakes of German, and not Polish, policy on migration.
“Undoubtedly, it is the internal political situation in Germany which is the reason for the sharpening of these steps, and not the Polish policy towards illegal migration at our borders,” he continued.
Piotr Kaczyński, an EU expert from the Polish think tank Geremek Foundation, told TVP World that “Tusk is right to call for explanations because it [Berlin’s decision] affects businesses, tourism, and pretty much all of us.”
According to him, the decision was made only because of the upcoming elections in the German state of Brandenburg on September 22.
Far-right taps into voter worries
Germany has taken a series of measures to toughen its stance on irregular migration in recent years following a surge in arrivals, in particular people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government is seeking to seize back the initiative from the opposition far-right and conservatives, who have seen support rise as they tap into voter worries about stretched public services, integration and security.
Recent deadly knife attacks in which the suspects were asylum seekers have stoked concerns in Germany over immigration. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a knife attack in the western city of Solingen that killed three people in August.
Germany’s AfD earlier this month became the first far-right party since World War Two to win a state election, in Thuringia, after campaigning heavily on the issue of migration.
Agnieszka Łada-Konefał, deputy director of the German Institute of Polish Affairs, told the AP news agency: “Due to the negative perception of the influx of migrants in Poland, any report of migrants being returned by Germany also negatively affects Polish-German relations and Germany’s image in Poland.”
Neighbors’ reactions
Berlin’s decision has also drawn reactions from some of its other neighbors.
Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told Bild newspaper on Monday that his country would not take in any migrants turned away by Germany at the border. “There’s no room for maneuver there,” he said.
