Commentators in Germany and Austria predicted economic fallout on Monday, when Poland is to start checking vehicles crossing from Germany in response to controls Berlin re-imposed last autumn.
Simone Schmollack of the left-leaning Tageszeitung reported rising anger on the bridge between Frankfurt (Oder) and Słubice and along the A12 motorway, saying gridlock will worsen once Polish officers begin stopping traffic. She argued Germany’s tougher May checks only spread frustration while migrants still slip through forest paths, and urged Berlin to accept Warsaw’s offer to lift both sets of controls simultaneously.
Schmollack said Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government risks humanitarian values and badly needed foreign labor, “burdening previously friendly relations with Poland” even after Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
In Süddeutsche Zeitung, Viktoria Grossmann highlighted citizen patrols led by far-right activist Robert Bąkiewicz, backed by opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) and president-elect Karol Nawrocki. The groups plan to target “mainly people with dark skin”, she wrote, citing German police figures showing 3,777 migrant pushbacks since September 2024.
Business daily Handelsblatt warned the curbs could choke cross-border commerce. DIHK director Helena Melnikov said late arrivals of Polish workers might worsen skills shortages in regions such as Brandenburg, whose interior minister Refe Wilke foresaw “huge traffic jams and chaos” affecting hundreds of thousands.
A widely carried dpa dispatch advised travelers to expect queues until at least 5 August, and said PiS was mixing anti-German sentiment with fear of migrants to gain political ground.
Austria’s Der Standard noted that ten Schengen states, including Germany and Austria, now use temporary internal border checks. It quoted liberal Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying Warsaw would “no longer ignore” such moves, reflecting pressure from nationalist opponents and self-styled militia groups.
(jh)
Source: PAP