Merz wants to expand border police based on the Bavarian model throughout Germany

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CDU leader Friedrich Merz on a visit to Rosenheim for election campaign assistance: "We have a problem here, we have to solve it together"

Photo: Uwe Lein / dpa

The Free State of Bavaria is in the middle of an election campaign – and CDU leader Friedrich Merz is supporting its sister party, the CSU, with a visit to Rosenheim in Upper Bavaria. There he visited the Federal Police and spoke out in favour of extending the unit to other federal states. This, Merz claimed, would make it possible to contain high immigration numbers more strongly in the future.

"I would like the Federal Minister of the Interior to accept this for other federal states, for example for Brandenburg to Poland and the Czech Republic," he said during a visit to the Federal Police. CSU leader Markus Söder had recently called for a 10,000 police force for the whole of Germany.

Merz emphasized that there is also a need for political action in the Federal Police. The CDU and CSU are of the opinion "that the technical equipment in particular, but also the competencies of the Federal Police must be critically reviewed." This applies to the area of law enforcement and technical equipment, for example to defend against illegal drone attacks, but also to the technical monitoring of telephone connections.

Insistence on more border controls

In order to curb the high number of immigrants overall, Merz again insisted on more border controls within the European Union at the internal borders, as long as the external border protection does not work. Rejections would also have to take place here. "Because it can't stay that way it is at the moment," Merz said. He called on the federal government to enter into a dialogue with all democratic parties in the opposition and the states "on how we can solve this problem in Germany".

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) recently rejected stationary controls at the borders with Poland and the Czech Republic to curb illegal migration. Saxony and Brandenburg had demanded the introduction of these controls due to increased immigration numbers at the borders with neighboring countries.

The Bavarian border police have been in existence for five years. There are currently around 820 officers on duty. Like the veil investigators of the police before it, the border police primarily check travelers without concrete suspicion on the main traffic routes from abroad and abroad. An agreement between the federal government and the Free State stipulates that border police officers may also carry out checks at the german-Austrian border, but only with the permission of the federal government.

With the introduction, the CSU had reacted to the high immigration figures. In fact, however, the control of people without an entry permit takes up only a small part of the work in the statistics – primarily the border police work against criminals such as smugglers or dealers.

mrc/dpa