Activists stopped on the bus: Poland’s border regime divides German politics

Activists stopped on the bus
Poland’s border regime divides German politics

While German activists are stopped on a trip to the Polish border area, the Greens in particular condemn the strict Warsaw line and insist on the right to asylum. But the future SPD leader Klingbeil sets other accents. The CDU foreign politician Röttgen also.

The Polish police stopped a bus of German refugee activists who were on their way to the border with Belarus. The bus from the Seebrücke Deutschland and LeaveNoOneBehind initiatives was not allowed to travel further east in the evening a few kilometers from the Kuznica border crossing. Poland has declared a state of emergency in a three-kilometer zone along the border. Aid organizations are not allowed in. The activists had previously handed over relief supplies such as winter shoes and blankets to a Polish organization.

Originally, they had planned to take migrants back to Germany with them. However, the Federal Ministry of the Interior warned that “unauthorized transport and any unauthorized entry” could have criminal consequences. A spokesman for the group, Ruben Neugebauer, said: “We want to send a sign of solidarity here. It is the day the wall came down, and it is important that we choose human rights instead of walls.” Europe must not allow itself to be blackmailed by a “dictator”.

A large number of migrants from countries such as Syria and Afghanistan who want to go to the West are waiting on the Belarusian side of the border. The EU accuses the Belarusian ruler Alexander Lukashenko of having people flown in from crisis regions in order to smuggle them into the EU. The EU imposed a series of sanctions following the obviously fraudulent presidential election in Belarus last year.

Klingbeil: “We have to create border security”

Poland’s tough crackdown on migrants on the Polish-Belarusian border met with criticism from the SPD. “Violence and pushbacks against refugees and migrants are prohibited, both of which are incompatible with our fundamental obligations to protect human rights,” emphasized the SPD’s migration policy spokesman in the Bundestag, Lars Castellucci, in the “Welt”.

SPD General Secretary Lars Klingbeil set a different accent. “We have to first make sure that no new refugees come,” he told the “Bild” newspaper. It is true that it is “not a good signal” if walls are built at the European borders, but it is also “clear” that “we have to create European border security”.

Criticism of Poland’s strict line came mainly from the Greens. “We urgently need to ensure that there are two messages in the direction of Poland. First: No to inhumane pushbacks. And second: Yes to solidarity,” demanded Green parliamentary leader Katrin Göring-Eckardt in the “Welt”. “Building walls and fences against people can never be the right way,” emphasized the Green European politician Ska Keller in the editorial network Germany. She also campaigned for support for Poland, but “according to human rights standards”.

Röttgen threatens Putin

The CDU foreign politician Norbert Röttgen also threatened Russian President Vladimir Putin with consequences. Lukashenko must “be sanctioned much more consistently in order to deprive his regime and the profiteers of the economic basis,” Röttgen told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “At the same time, the EU must make it clear to Putin that relations with Russia will continue to deteriorate if he tolerates or even supports this behavior.” If the flights are not stopped immediately, “this must have consequences for the countries from which they come and some of which receive a lot of money from the EU,” demanded Röttgen, who is considered a possible candidate for the CDU chairmanship. “All airlines that are involved in this state-organized human trafficking must immediately be banned from landing in the entire EU.”

The AfD gave praise for the tough crackdown on refugees by Polish security forces. “We would like to thank the government and the security forces of the Republic of Poland, who, with their steadfast and self-sacrificing commitment, not only defend the external border of the EU, but also the security of Germany and its citizens,” said parliamentary group leader Tino Chrupalla.

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