Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Interior Minister Gerhard Karner attended a meeting of the Bavarian state government.
In Bavaria’s current election campaign, Prime Minister Markus Söder praised Austria’s migration policy. In this area, he would like “more Vienna than Berlin”, he said after Tuesday’s Bavarian cabinet meeting in Munich, which was also attended by Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP). Austria has become “almost an ally” in migration policy, Söder (CSU) emphasized.
Both countries, with their heads of government as representatives of the middle class, are “related in spirit”. For his part, Nehammer highlighted, according to a statement from the Federal Chancellery: “In Austria, the number of applications has fallen by more than 50 percent compared to July of the previous year, and in Germany it is increasing. This is also why we agree that, in addition to bilateral cooperation, there is a need for effective protection of the EU’s external borders and greater cooperation with countries of origin and transit”, says the statement.
At the meeting, Bavaria was “very interested” in knowing how Austria reduced the number of asylum requests. “Austria and Bavaria are mainly affected by pressure from migratory movements. “Given the situation, it is essential to further strengthen our cooperation in the fight against illegal migration,” emphasized Nehammer.
Nehammer refrained from criticism
During his visit to Bavaria, Nehammer avoided criticizing German border controls at motorway border posts with Austria. Successful searches of the border between Austria and Germany showed that securing the EU’s external borders “simply doesn’t work”, the Chancellor said in Munich. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) also participated in the cabinet meeting and held bilateral working discussions with his Bavarian counterpart Joachim Herrmann.