The Austrian government is being praised in Bavaria for the recent decline in the number of asylum seekers.
Anyone who visits Markus Söder is almost certain to learn one thing: a saying. “We need more Vienna instead of Berlin”, was what the Bavarian prime minister, who was campaigning hard, prepared for his Austrian guests on Tuesday. Recently, there have been fewer people applying for official refugee status. How much asylum applications fell and over what period of time were they communicated differently. One thing is certain: they have decreased markedly.
Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (both ÖVP) gratefully accepted the praise in Munich. The latter had already been admired by Austrian asylum statistics during a visit in May – in Berlin. “I expressly welcome the fact that a rethinking of migration issues is taking place in Germany,” Karner said at the time, addressing the Social Democratic Interior Minister, Nancy Faeser.
They have to decide whether German controls on the German-Austrian border, which have been ongoing since 2015, will be extended for another six months from November. So far, it has rejected a similar measure on the borders with Poland or the Czech Republic. This was requested from the federal states of East Germany.
There were no official comments on the excitement of the election campaign in Bavaria – the radical right-wing activities of Söder’s deputy Hubert Aiwanger in his youth. (zoot)