Germany, Denmark vow tough common approach to immigration

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Wednesday they agreed on the need to urgently curb immigration and strengthen EU rules on asylum to maintain social cohesion. Denmark has long had tough immigration policies, with Frederiksen pursuing a "zero refugee" policy since coming to power in 2019 and granting relatively few asylum requests.

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Seeking to combat the popularity of the far right, Merz has vowed to crack down hard on irregular migration, and his government has stepped up efforts to turn back undocumented migrants at Germany's borders. Speaking alongside Frederiksen at a press conference in Berlin, the German chancellor said: "Denmark has long been a role model for us in migration policy." 

"What Denmark has achieved in recent years is truly exemplary, and we have often sought information from members of the Danish cabinet and from you personally about how you have proceeded," he said. While acknowledging that Germany had long been a "country of immigration", Merz emphasised that "we must not overburden our society's willingness to accept and integrate newcomers. 

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"We are at the limit of what we can do." He also said work was ongoing towards implementing "stricter asylum rules in the European Union. We want to implement them quickly." Frederiksen pledged to work with Merz to find "new solutions that lower the influx to Europe" and lead to the return of "those that do not have the right to stay in our countries". "If we are to maintain the social cohesion of our societies we cannot accept everyone who wants to come to Europe," she said. 

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Public opinion has turned against migration sharply in much of Europe, fuelling hard-right electoral gains and increasing pressure on governments to act. In Germany, the anti-immigration, far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) scored their best ever result in February's elections, coming second behind Merz's conservatives. Merz's CDU/CSU bloc pledged to take a hard line on the issue during a heated election campaign, with the debate fueled by several deadly attacks blamed on foreigners. 

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Denmark's immigration approach has been influenced by far-right parties for over 20 years, as it implemented initiatives to discourage migrants and made it harder to obtain Danish citizenship.