During the election campaign, Friedrich Merz promised stricter border controls. Now, from day one, the new government has announced an increased police presence and more returns at the borders. But there will be some exceptions.
During the election campaign, Friedrich Merz promised that if his CDU party wins, on the very first day of his government he will instruct the Interior Ministry to control "permanently" all German borders and to stop "all attempts at illegal entry" into Germany "without exception".
What is changing in Germany
Here comes the first day. And indeed, the Federal Interior Ministry announced the introduction of increased border controls and returns of illegal migrants. Just hours after taking office as Federal Minister of the Interior, Alexander Dobrindt announced yesterday (May 7) that in the future asylum seekers will also be able to be returned at land borders.
Dobrindt also announced that in order to implement this measure, the police presence at the country's borders will be increased in the coming days. We recall that border controls in Germany have been gradually introduced since September 2024 - at all land borders.
The police union believes that it can deploy more police officers at the borders, but only for a certain period of time. "We will find ourselves in a situation where overtime work accumulates - something that we cannot maintain in the long term as a federal police force," says Andreas Roskopf from the union. "We are working in the red to be able to do all this."
Who can not be returned at the border?
Contrary to Friedrich Merz's campaign promises, however, some exceptions will be made when returning migrants at the border. Since the step is legally disputed, the new Interior Minister Alexander Dobrint has given the federal police an order according to which the entry into Germany of people seeking protection "can also be refused". "Of course, we will not return children, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups at the border," the minister emphasized to the media.
On the basis of these exceptions, any legal claims before the Administrative Court by returned migrants can be rejected. "This is an attempt to appease the courts. Because these returns won't work if the courts don't accept them," says migration law expert Daniel Thum from the University of Konstanz. However, he doesn't expect many lawsuits.
"Signal" to "the world and Europe"
The number of asylum applications in Germany has been falling sharply recently. In the first quarter of 2025, 36,000 applications were submitted, which is 30,000 fewer than in the same period last year. However, Dobrint believes that the number is still too high.
The new Interior Minister wants to send a "signal" to "the world and Europe" from the very first day that German policy has changed, as he put it on his first day in office.