Austria holds border exercises in response to Germany | News | DW | 26.06.2018

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Austria holds border exercises in response to Germany

As Germany's government bitterly debates border protection, Austria is undertaking a large-scale border operation. Austrian leaders say the German squabble and possible changes to European policy triggered the move.

  • Two Austrian soldiers stand next to each other near the border with Slovenia

    'ProBorders': Austria stages border protection exercises

    Austria's answer to migration

    During the 2015 migration crisis, Austria took in more than 1 percent of its population in asylum seekers. Since then, a right-wing government has come to power, vowing to never allow a repeat of such irregular migration. Vienna's "ProBorders" military and police exercises at the border aimed to increase authorities' preparedness for a similar wave of migration.

  • Austria's military deploy armored vehicle at border

    'ProBorders': Austria stages border protection exercises

    'Provocative' action

    For the exercises, Austrian authorities deployed armored vehicles and two Black Hawk combat helicopters, although the training did not include violence on the part of migrants or arrests. Despite the show of force at the Austrian-Slovenian border, Slovenia's prime minister said the exercises weren't needed, and even called them "a little provocative."

  • Police cadets act as migrants attempting to enter Austria

    'ProBorders': Austria stages border protection exercises

    From elite troops to cadets

    Hundreds of soldiers and police officers were involved in the exercises, including Austria's new elite border protection force called the "Puma" police unit. Police cadets played the part of the migrants attempting to cross the border. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said the Austrian government "will do everything necessary to protect our borders."

  • Austria's defense and interior ministers shake hands during the exercises

    'ProBorders': Austria stages border protection exercises

    Sending a message

    Austrian Interior Minister Herbert Kickl and Defense Minister Mario Kunasek, both of the far-right Freedom Party, attended the exercises. "A state that in the worst case cannot protect its borders loses its credibility," Kickl told reporters. "I am determined that events like those of 2015 must not occur again. And that is exactly the message we want to send from here."

  • Police round up actors during border protection exercises

    'ProBorders': Austria stages border protection exercises

    Hard borders on the horizon?

    The exercises came days after German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer threatened to take drastic measures if Chancellor Angela Merkel didn't find a EU-wide solution to irregular migration. Seehofer has proposed intercepting asylum seekers at the German border, a move that would likely prompt major restrictions on freedom of movement in the visa-free Schengen zone.

    Author: Lewis Sanders IV


  • Two Austrian soldiers stand next to each other near the border with Slovenia

    'ProBorders': Austria stages border protection exercises

    Austria's answer to migration

    During the 2015 migration crisis, Austria took in more than 1 percent of its population in asylum seekers. Since then, a right-wing government has come to power, vowing to never allow a repeat of such irregular migration. Vienna's "ProBorders" military and police exercises at the border aimed to increase authorities' preparedness for a similar wave of migration.

  • Austria's military deploy armored vehicle at border

    'ProBorders': Austria stages border protection exercises

    'Provocative' action

    For the exercises, Austrian authorities deployed armored vehicles and two Black Hawk combat helicopters, although the training did not include violence on the part of migrants or arrests. Despite the show of force at the Austrian-Slovenian border, Slovenia's prime minister said the exercises weren't needed, and even called them "a little provocative."

  • Police cadets act as migrants attempting to enter Austria

    'ProBorders': Austria stages border protection exercises

    From elite troops to cadets

    Hundreds of soldiers and police officers were involved in the exercises, including Austria's new elite border protection force called the "Puma" police unit. Police cadets played the part of the migrants attempting to cross the border. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said the Austrian government "will do everything necessary to protect our borders."

  • Austria's defense and interior ministers shake hands during the exercises

    'ProBorders': Austria stages border protection exercises

    Sending a message

    Austrian Interior Minister Herbert Kickl and Defense Minister Mario Kunasek, both of the far-right Freedom Party, attended the exercises. "A state that in the worst case cannot protect its borders loses its credibility," Kickl told reporters. "I am determined that events like those of 2015 must not occur again. And that is exactly the message we want to send from here."

  • Police round up actors during border protection exercises

    'ProBorders': Austria stages border protection exercises

    Hard borders on the horizon?

    The exercises came days after German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer threatened to take drastic measures if Chancellor Angela Merkel didn't find a EU-wide solution to irregular migration. Seehofer has proposed intercepting asylum seekers at the German border, a move that would likely prompt major restrictions on freedom of movement in the visa-free Schengen zone.

    Author: Lewis Sanders IV


Austria held border patrol training exercises on Tuesday. The country's leaders told German newspaper Bild that they came in response to a rift in the German government over migration.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) have been locked in a heated debate over plans by their Bavarian coalition partners to intercept refugees at the German border.

Read more: EU leaders meet as divisions cloud asylum and migration talks

Watch video 02:38
Now live
02:38 mins.

Austria tests border defense on Slovenian border

Austria unveils new border division

Austrian Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache of the far-right FPÖ told Bild:

  • "On Tuesday there will be a major police and army exercise in Spielfeld, during which the new Puma police border protection unit will also be inaugurated."
  • "With this exercise on the border between Austria and Slovenia, we want to prepare ourselves for all developments and send a clear signal that there will no longer be a loss of control and free passage like in 2015."
  • "The reasons for this are the debate about intra-European border closures, triggered by Germany, as well as current developments on the refugee routes in the Balkans."

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz of the center-right ÖVP said:

  • "We will be prepared and will do everything necessary to protect our borders. That would mean securing the borders at Brenner [at the Italian border], but also in many other places."
  • "But I want to cooperate so that it will not come to that. We must ensure that illegal migrants no longer make it to the European Union in the first place, because then we would not need intra-European border controls."
Watch video 02:17
Now live
02:17 mins.

Migration conflict theatens Angela Merkel's political future

Germany's situation: Horst Seehofer, who leads the CDU's conservative Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU), has given Merkel a July 1 deadline to find an EU solution to limiting refugee numbers. He has threatened to use his authority as interior minister to halt refugees at the German border if they have already registered in other countries. The move would potentially have drastic repercussions for freedom of movement in the EU. Nonetheless Seehofer enjoys the backing of the Austrian government.

Read more: Bavarian conservative leader shuns Angela Merkel in German state election

EU negotiations: Merkel met with EU leaders on Sunday to discuss potential EU-wide reforms to the asylum system. The meeting raised several potential responses, but most will take longer to implement than Seehofer is hoping for. President of the European Council Donald Tusk and Spain's new Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez were due in Berlin on Monday to discuss the issue ahead of an EU leaders' summit later in the week.

The exercises: The Interior Ministry was testing out its new Puma border control unit, simulating different responses to scenarios similar to the 2015 migrant crisis.  More than 500 police officers and 220 soldiers took part in the exercise, intercepting police students acting as refugees trying to cross the border. Very few refugees have actually attempted to cross the Spielfeld border recently.

Nationalist praise: Martin Sellner, who head's Austria's Identitarian movement, commended authorities for using the same #proborders hashtag favored by his nationalist youth movement to publicize the drills.

Watch video 02:00
Now live
02:00 mins.

Pressure grows on Merkel over asylum policy

aw/msh (dpa, AFP, AP)

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