“Doesn’t work” – border dispute: Slovenes loosen up, Chancellor remains firm

The Austrian Ministry of the Interior had published current migration figures from Slovenia, according to which illegal border crossings into the neighboring country had increased “drastically” this year. At the beginning of June, Slovenian authorities had detained 16,131 people, compared to 4,598 people in the same period last year.

Checks also for Austrian tourists?
In this regard, Golob posed “the rhetorical question” of whether Slovenia should use these figures as an opportunity “to introduce controls on the return of Austrian tourists during the holiday season. That probably says everything about the usefulness of these controls.”

Registration of migrants is more effective
“We don’t want to hit our own population or our neighbors with measures that are ineffective,” said Golob. The high number of arrests in Slovenia would show that other measures in the fight against illegal migration are more effective. “We register all migrants. Our numbers are very high because we register them. This process is much more effective than border controls.”

In this context, the Slovenian Prime Minister emphasized Denmark, which also lifted border controls with Germany in May and relies more on controls in the hinterland. Austria, Slovenia and Croatia are now taking a similar approach in a joint initiative. “Slovenia does not want to abolish Schengen. We want to be a role model to deal with migrants differently,” says Golob.

Nehammer welcomed Golob’s suggestion. He will order Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) “to expand cooperation with Slovenia”, the head of government said. At the same time, he reiterated the Austrian position that border controls at the Slovenian border were necessary. This year there were again 18,000 asylum applications in Austria, and the majority of these migrants had not previously been registered in another EU country. This shows that the Schengen area “doesn’t work”.

Will return to the test bench in the fall
Nehammer hinted that border controls with Slovenia could be put to the test again in the fall. “If we manage to reduce the pressure, you can talk about it,” he said, referring to the six-month measure.

No reason for checks in Italy
Responding to a question from APA, the Chancellor admitted that there would be a “bypass” towards Italy due to the “strict surveillance” of the Slovenian border. However, he sees no reason to introduce border controls at the Austrian-Italian border. In this regard, he argued with the “high black market statistics” in Italy, the manhunt at the Brenner Pass and that there was “no significant increase” on the Canal Valley route (between Tarvisio and Udine).

Other than the border control dispute, nothing seemed to fit between Golob and Nehammer. The two presented themselves as harmonious, both in the reform of the EU’s asylum policy and in the pursuit of a rapid rapprochement of the Western Balkans with the EU.

Visit to President Sobotka of the National Council
Golob, who has been in office since the end of May 2022, is in Austria for the first time. Nehammer received him with military honors before the Federal Chancellery in the late morning. In the afternoon a walk through the city was on the program. After lunch, a visit to the chairman of the National Council, Wolfgang Sobotka, was on the program.