Ursula von der Leyen. (Image: Getty)
Ursula von der Leyen is being urged to fund new border fences in Poland and , to stem the flow of migrants into the .
The pressure being applied to the Commission President is coming from members of her own party – the German Christian Democrats (CDU), which is part of the centre-right European People’s Party in the European Parliament.
It comes with political discourse in Germany dominated by the issue of migration, as the Eurosceptic, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party riding high.
The AfD recently stormed to victory for the first time, winning a vote in the state of Thuringia and coming second in Saxony and Brandenburg.
Armed Polish military personnel guard the border with Belarus (Image: Getty)
Speaking to European news outlet Euractiv, Alexander Throm, the CDU’s main MP on home affairs said: “I expect the Federal Government and the EU Commission to ensure that we do not abandon states by the external borders such as Poland and Greece.
“This is a task that affects us all. And anyone who wants secure borders must also commit to border fortifications.”
This would include supporting “structural and technical border protection where necessary”, he added.
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A border fence was erected at the Greek border in 2021. (Image: Getty)
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has previously criticised the idea of jointly funded border security by the EU and federal governments.
He argued that EU-funded border reinforcement would amount to “refinancing national defence efforts through European financial channels”.
The SPD leader also noted the pre-existing border protection agency Frontex as an existing means of reducing migratory flows.