The return of border controls to Germany disrupts free movement

The line of cars winds over more than a kilometer. Klaxon of motorists exasperated, snoring of engines, invective … The caravan painfully tries to rally Kehl, German border town, from Strasbourg. Opposite, the border post is teeming with police officers from all over Germany to control plates and drivers. Cars are ordered to park on the side. Deutsche Polizei identity papers, vehicle papers, opening of the trunk …

United Europe undermined

At the station, a police team stops all the trains, premises and at high speed, coming from the Alsatian capital to control their passengers. An elegant lady, originally from Cameroon, striped linen shirt and royal blue scarf on the hair, feverishly releases a receipt of request for asylum law delivered by France. On the platform, the Polizeikommissar Philipp Bodenschatz contrasts. “No, it is not suitable. She joined a couple of elderly people, exfiltrated from the tram a few meters away, shopping bags in hand, the haggard air. “We must do a procedure for them too, they forgot their identity card,” annoys the officer. Scenes that revitalize Jeanne Barseghian and Wolfram Britz, the mayors of the two municipalities, who made Kehl and Strasbourg a “Europe laboratory” cited as an example by the European Commission.

The reason that prompted Friedrich Merz, Christian Democratic Chancellor (CDU), elected May 6, 2025, defender of a “united Europe”, to order these checks is in three letters: AFD (Alternative für deutschland ), the far -right party, and its 20.8 % of the votes during these legislative elections. In order not to be overwhelmed on his right, the new Minister of the Interior, Alexander Dobrindt (CSU, ally of the CDU) erected the fight against illegal immigration to the rank of “priority”. On May 8, in full commemoration of the Nazi capitulation, Germany restored strict controls.

A shock and a mess in the first weeks. It was necessary to count until an hour to cross the border in certain points. Unlivable for the more than 50,000 French workers who cross the border daily. Since then, everyone has been accommodating. Giacomo Bernardi, Italian living in Strasbourg with his French wife, works in Bühl, across the Rhine. “I no longer put my son at school, it is my wife who takes care of it. It disrupts our lives. This decision nevertheless finds an echo in the German population. In January, 57 % of Germans surveyed by the daily Die Welt said they were in favor of repressing the border of valid undocumented entry, even if they intend to request asylum. And there are many French people crossed on site who urge France to be inspired by it.

Damage to the rules of Dublin

Uncertainty, however, weighs on the legality of these controls. In June, the Berlin Administrative Court agreed with three Somalians, expelled directly despite their asylum application filed in Germany. Surimed to his desire to reduce the number of these requests, Berlin has violated the Dublin regulation, which strictly supervises the procedure.

A voluntary sling, according to the hierarchs of the CSU, which aspire to an overhaul of the application of the regulation, which would leave greater room for maneuver to the States. “The German government sat on the law,” sums up Catherine Haguenau-Moizard at the Faculty of Law of Strasbourg. On her computer, the German -speaking of public law teaches the long list of European countries that have restored checks. France, Denmark, Belgium, Italy … all “give themselves the opportunity to do systematic checks”. The Schengen border code provides for their recovery in the event of threats to public order or internal security. Normally, they can only last six months, renewable for a maximum period of three years. “There is a subtlety, points out the lawyer. Just name the threat differently to relaunch these deadlines. France has been locking since 2015, Ventimille, an Italian border town since 2015. “All the indicators are red concerning the Schengen area: it is unraveable and unraveling. »»

Poland has in turn to restore controls at its borders with Lithuania and Germany. A direct response to the German decision. Faced with this revival of tensions, the solution could come from peoples. In Kehl, the mobilization improves, gently, the situation. If the police do not recognize it, the recriminations of the two banks of the Rhine would have pushed the authorities to develop the controls in the morning to limit the embarrassment of border workers. Determined, Claus Nückles, president of the Kehlois merchant association, assures him: “We continue to fight, Kehl and Strasbourg, it is the same city. The fight will be long: in the fall, Germany plans to extend the controls.