Between November 1, 2024 and April 30, 2025, France will reestablish border controls with six of its European neighbors. A similar measure was taken by Germany at the end of September.
The return to borders in the Schengen area? Thursday October 17, France announced the reestablishment of border controls with six European countries. The states concerned are Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Spain. Concretely, the borders will be temporarily put in place from November 1, 2024 and until April 30, 2025.
“The serious threats to public order and internal security posed by high-level terrorist activities, the growing presence of criminal networks facilitating irregular immigration and migrant smuggling, and migratory flows that risk being infiltrated by radicalized individuals,” indicates the European Commission on its website.
The supranational institution also points the finger at migratory flows coming from the Channel and the North Sea. This phenomenon causes “dangerous situations involving both migrants and law enforcement.”
Same measure among our German neighbors
A few weeks ago, Germany took a similar step. On September 16, border controls were reestablished for a renewable period of six months. The checks concern neighboring countries such as Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and France. The controls “apply to all border crossings between Germany and France,” reported France Diplomatie, the website of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs. Travelers must therefore have an identity card or passport.
This decision takes place in a particular context. On August 24, a 26-year-old Syrian, who arrived in Germany at the end of December 2022, carried out a knife attack during a festival in Solingen. The individual caused the death of three people and injured several people. The Daesh group claimed responsibility for the attack, specifying that the terrorist acted “to avenge the Muslims of Palestine and everywhere else,” according to the press release released by the propaganda organ Amaq.
Additionally, Chancellor Olaf Scholz faces the rise of the AfD. During the regional elections at the beginning of September, the nationalist party weakened Olaf Scholz’s center-left coalition by achieving record scores in Saxony and Thuringia. “[Ces] results are worrying (…) All democratic parties are now called upon to form stable governments without the extreme right,” reacted the German leader.
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