German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser will announce temporary border controls at all of the country’s land borders on Monday to curb irregular migration and protect the public from Islamist extremism, a government source told Reuters.
Faeser, which was supposed to hold a press conference on the package of security measures at 4:30 p.m., will inform the European Commission about the plans, the source said.
The German government has consulted the main opposition party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), on ways to curb migration after a deadly knife attack by a Syrian-born asylum seeker in the town of Solingen last month.
The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won last week’s election in the federal state of Thuringia and finished second in Saxony.
Minister Faeser‘s Social Democrats face elections in Brandenburg in two weeks, where the party rules in coalition with the Greens and the Christian Democrats.
Germany has a 3,700 kilometer long border with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland.
Last year, Berlin announced tighter controls at its land borders with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland in response to a surge in asylum applications.
