Since Germany's announcement at the beginning of September of the reestablishment of controls at its internal borders, Europe has brought the debate on immigration back to the forefront. British Labor Prime Minister Keir Starmer traveled to Italy to learn about the restrictive migration policy of council president Giorgia Meloni. The Netherlands and Hungary officially asked the European Commission, in mid-September, for a waiver to no longer participate in the common migration policy in the event of revision of the treaties, while in Austria the subject dominated the legislative campaign.
In France, just appointed to the Ministry of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau announced on September 23 that he wanted to put an end to the “migratory disorder”less than a year after the last restrictive law on the subject, while the Danish Prime Minister, the social democrat Mette Fredriksen, affirmed: “Unfortunately we have to be very tough on immigration. » From now on, we summarize in Brussels, there is no longer any taboo on this issue.
Why such hardening of the discourse, when irregular arrivals have fallen by 39% since the start of 2024 (to 140,000 people) and the million annual asylum requests, certainly at their highest level, remain modest in comparison of a continent of 450 million inhabitants? From the right and the left, European leaders have stiff on this subject and they do not hesitate to borrow the ideas that the extreme right has defended for forty years.
“A way of polarizing the debate”
“From one country to another, these announcements are often linked to electoral sequences, notes Matthieu Tardis, researcher at the Synergies migrations reflection and action center. In Germany, the reestablishment of border control took place after a heavy defeat of the SPD [Parti social-démocrate] in certain Länder facing the AfD, the far-right party, as well as[’après] tragic news stories [notamment l’attaque au couteau à Solingen par un réfugié syrien, le 23 août]. In France, firmness in matters of migration management is a strong political marker for the new government. It has become a totem and a way of polarizing the debate. »
For Germany and Austria, “the recent announcements are the consequence of ten years of very significant receptionrecalls Gerald Knaus, the Austrian president of the European Stability Initiative. Between 2014 and 2023, Germany welcomed 35% of asylum seekers in Europe, or 2.5 million people, and recognized the refugee status of 1.4 million of them. This is almost half of all refugees welcomed in Europe ». Austria has received, in proportion to its population, the largest contingent of refugees. “After large waves of arrivals, you always have a backlash, a return to a protectionist policy. This has been the case in the United States after each major migratory wave”REMARK political scientist Ivan Krastev, from the Center for Liberal Strategies in Sofia.
You have 63.91% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
Source: Lemonde
