Austria prepared to respond if Germany’s migrant deal goes into effect

World Today

(L-R) Austria’s Interior Minister Herbert Kickl (FPÖ), Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) and Austria’s Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache (FPÖ) attend a press conference in Vienna, Austria on July 3, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / APA / GEORG HOCHMUTH)

Germany has proposed tightening its borders to some asylum seekers. That compromise could leave neighboring Austria in a risky position, and they’re threatening to retaliate.

CGTN’s Guy Henderson reports from Berlin.

“We are prepared for all scenarios and are prepared to adopt any number of measures that are necessary to prevent any negative impact on our republic and the Austrian people,” Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP)(L) and Austria’s Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache (FPÖ) attend a press conference in Vienna, Austria on July 3, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / APA / GEORG HOCHMUTH)

Those comments haven’t deterred German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer. He wants migrant transit centers opened “as soon as possible” after Monday night’s deal.

That will mean refusing entry to some asylum seekers at the Bavarian border. However, Vienna doesn’t want them either. Seehofer will head to the area on Thursday to try and ease Austrian concerns if the deal stands.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, shakes hands with Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, left, as they arrive for a special faction meeting of the Christian Union parties, ahead of a debate at the German parliament Bundestag at the Reichtag building in Berlin, Tuesday, July 3, 2018. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Merkel’s other coalition partner, the center-left Social Democratic Party (SDP), is voicing big doubts about it.

“We know that there must not even be a suspicion that a German Chancellor is open to blackmail. Seehofer blackmailed the government and he blackmailed Chancellor Merkel which is an unbelievable occurrence,” Sigmar Gabriel of the SDP said.

Merkel’s concessions were aimed at saving her fragile coalition government. They may yet lead to putting further strain on it. The fact that she was successfully bullied into it may also embolden her critics, both inside Germany and in other European capitals.

Parliamentary group leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) Andrea Nahles (L) and German Finance Minister and Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz speak to journalists after a coalition meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin on July 3, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / dpa / Carsten Koall)