In a landmark agreement, the interior ministers of Austria, Germany and Italy have banded together against illegal migration, but the move is more likely to split the German Cabinet than it is to make the EU change its mind. In a landmark agreement, the interior ministers of Austria, Germany and Italy have banded together against illegal migration, but the move is more likely to split the German Cabinet than it is to make the EU change its mind.

EU Times “In our view, we need an ‘axis of the willing’ in the fight against illegal migration,” Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz said after meeting with Horst Seehofer, Germany’s interior minister in Berlin. “I am happy about the cooperation that we want to develop between Rome, Vienna and Berlin.”

This is the first time central European powers have joined forces against illegal migrants, more than 1.8 million of whom have entered the continent in the past four years. In his statement Kurz called the peak of the influx in 2015 a “catastrophe” that “must be prevented” in the future. A previous such alliance in Eastern Europe, the Visegrád Four, led by Hungary and Poland, who erected guarded borders and refused to accept EU refugee quotas, was repeatedly censured by Brussels.

But what were dismissed as marginal or protest parties, have made a breakthrough in the past year, with the election of center-right coalition in Austria and a Euroskeptic coalition in Italian government. The centrists in Germany have also suffered historically poor results, with the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) forming the biggest opposition party in parliament.

Vlad Tepesblog

In January, Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary met with leaders of the Bavarian Christian Democrats and declared, “2018 will be the year in which the will of the people is restored.”

Gates of Vienna Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met with leaders of the CSU (Bavarian Christian Democrats,Horst Seehofer (CSU), the leader of Angela Merkel’s sister party in Bavaria).

His speech is a condemnation of the illegal immigration policies practised by Merkel and the EU. Orbán has once again basically called Merkel’s actions illegal, and has dug his heels in. Hungary is currently subject to a judicial review by the European Union for refusing to allow illegal Muslim immigrants into his country.

He also demanded the forced removal of the million Muslims from the Schengen Area back to their home countries (the Schengen Area is a common region within Europe where people can move from country to country without passport controls). Terrorists have used this area to launch mass murder attacks across the continent.

In the press conference, Horst Seehofer says Bavaria will start a new initiative for better cooperation with the Central European states and Hungary; he calls it a new “Central European alliance.”

Vlad Tepesblog