Austrian chancellor sees anti-immigration ally in Merz

BERLIN — Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker said he sees German Chancellor Friedrich Merz as a key partner in drastically cutting irregular migration to Europe even as tensions simmer between their countries over Berlin’s domestic border crackdown.

“We need a solution to ensure that procedures take place at the external [European Union] border,” Stocker told POLITICO’s Berlin Playbook Podcast, speaking of asylum claims. “Protecting our internal borders in the Schengen area cannot be the last answer. This can only be an emergency solution,” he said ahead of planned talks with Merz in Berlin on Friday.

“I am very happy that I have a partner in Friedrich Merz who sees these things very similarly,” Stocker added.

Stocker said he viewed Austria as “a pioneer” in promoting stricter European policies on asylum claims. Germany has long pushed back on some of the tougher European migration proposals, but Merz’s arrival has shifted that paradigm.

Under pressure from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) opposition party, Merz’s conservative-led government has vowed to drastically cut the inflow of asylum seekers to the country. Just days after taking office this spring Merz’s interior minister increased checks on Germany’s borders — including with Austria — and said German police would turn away more undocumented immigrants, including asylum seekers.

The border crackdown led to tensions between Germany and its neighbors, with politicians in France, Poland and Austria criticizing Merz’s government for inhibiting the free movement of people and goods within the Schengen area. Ultimately, the number of asylum seekers turned away at Germany’s borders was low, leading critics to disparage Merz’s crackdown as largely symbolic.

Stocker downplayed the suggestion that Germany’s border controls had created significant tensions between the two countries, instead siding with Merz to form a tough-on-migration axis within Europe.

“I believe that these restrictions do not have a major impact,” he said of the border controls. “If there is a need to control an internal border, and we have done so ourselves … I cannot deny other countries doing the same. In other words, these border controls are ultimately a solution that is not intended to be permanent, but sometimes it is a necessary one.”

Germany has long pushed back on some of the tougher European migration proposals, but Friedrich Merz’s arrival has shifted that paradigm. | Oliver Matthys/EPA

Prior to the European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday, Merz attended a gathering of anti-immigration European leaders that included Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen. “We are back on board with the topic of migration,” an official from the German chancellery said.

Stocker, whose centrist coalition is also under pressure from the far right, said he favors the Commission’s plan to overhaul the EU’s deportation system, called for heightened controls on the bloc’s external borders, and urged that asylum procedures take place on Europe’s borders instead of within member states.

“It’s a matter of coordinating our positions, while also coordinating how we deal with the issues discussed in the European Council at the European level,” Stocker said ahead of his Friday meeting with Merz.