Zürcher Nachrichten - Germany's new govt orders border police to reject most asylum seekers

The move is a key part of Merz's plans to wrest the initiative away from the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), which came second in February's election and has continued to climb in the polls.

Germany's new government, installed Tuesday, has moved to boost its border police and ordered officers to reject undocumented migrants including asylum seekers, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said.

Dobrindt said he was issuing an order "to ensure that the police can make such pushbacks", adding that exceptions would be made for "vulnerable groups" including pregnant women and children.

To implement the move, Dobrindt reversed a directive from 2015, at the height of the European migration crisis when Germany welcomed more than a million people mainly from Syria and Afghanistan.

Bild daily said Dobrindt had given an order for 2,000 to 3,000 extra federal officers to be sent to Germany's borders, in addition to the 11,000 already in place.

News outlet Der Spiegel said police would have to work shifts of up to 12 hours a day to enforce the new regime.

Federal police union chief Andreas Rosskopf told the Rheinische Post newspaper that the "the reinforcement of forces at the border has started" in line with the new instructions.

Dobrindt said Germany must "reduce illegal migration and asylum applications", adding that the process would be "step-by-step" and that "we will not do this by overburdening our neighbours".

The aim was to guarantee "humanity and order" in migration, he said, adding that order should be "given greater weight and strength than may have been seen in the past".

- AfD 'agitation' -

Merz has argued that tough measures are needed to ease voters' concerns and to halt the rise of the AfD.

The AfD won a record of more than 20 percent in the elections, second only to Merz's conservative CDU/CSU alliance, and has since risen further in opinion polls, at times coming first.

The coalition agreement between Merz's CDU/CSU and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) also says that all people arriving at German borders without documents will be refused entry, including those seeking asylum.

This last point has raised controversy, with some in the SPD voicing concerns it may not be compatible with European Union law.

The agreement also says increased border checks are to remain in place until "there is effective protection of external EU borders".

Amid a spate of violent attacks blamed on foreign nationals in the run-up to February's election, Merz made a crackdown on irregular migration a key theme of his campaign.

At one point, he relied on AfD support in parliament to push through a motion demanding a crackdown on immigration, a manoeuvre widely seen as breaching a "firewall" of non-cooperation with the party.

Last week Germany's BfV domestic intelligence agency said it had designated the AfD a "right-wing extremist" organisation.

It based the designation on a lengthy internal report given to the interior ministry but not made public.

The Spiegel reported on Wednesday that the report refers to statements made by hundreds of party members at all levels proving the party is carrying out "continuous agitation" against migrants, refugees and Muslims.

It also points to AfD figures taking up the slogan of "remigration", a reference to large-scale deportations of foreigners from Germany.

The BfV's move sparked fresh calls for the party to be banned and an indignant reaction from the AfD itself, which mounted a legal challenge to the designation on Monday.

M.J.Baumann--NZN