Stocker: "We won't be deterred: the Schengen veto remains in place"

2023-08-19 16:11:25

The safety of the Austrian population has the highest priority for the People’s Party

Vienna (OTS) – “We are not deterred by heckling from Romania. The Schengen veto will remain in place as long as the existing system does not work, the EU’s external borders are underprotected and the number of illegal migrants is still too high. Because while Austria, thanks to the commitment of Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Minister of the Interior Gerhard Karner, is seeing falling numbers of asylum applications, they remain high in other European countries. A significant part of human smuggling crime within the EU takes place via the route from Serbia via Romania to Hungary. In addition, Romania ranks third behind Syria and Turkey in terms of the number of people smugglers arrested. In plain language, that means we mustn’t make things easier for the people smugglers, we must put a stop to them. As long as the Schengen system does not work and the smuggling mafia exploits this failed system, there will be no Schengen extension with Austria,” said the General Secretary of the People’s Party, Christian Stocker, in response to the criticism from Romania.

“We will not allow ourselves to be dissuaded from our consistent path of combating asylum abuse, because the safety of the Austrian population has the highest priority for the People’s Party,” Stocker continued, who finally emphasized: “The balance sheet shows us that Interior Minister Gerhard Karner is actually successful in the fight against illegal migration, while FPÖ party chairman Herbert Kickl only makes populist demands. As interior minister, Kickl had the chance to reform the Austrian asylum system, but the FPÖ chairman left nothing but a shambles in all his areas of responsibility. Herbert Kickl cannot be expected of the Austrian population again in a government function.”