Austria Could Be the Next E.U. Country to Tighten Its Borders

BERLIN — Hours after Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc agreed to measures that would tighten Germany’s southern border, Austrian leaders announced plans on Tuesday for similar actions that would further threaten Europe’s system of free movement.

In a last-ditch effort to save her government after weeks of bitter infighting with rebellious coalition partners, Ms. Merkel agreed late Monday to a plan to set up camps along the 500-mile border it shares with Austria to screen newly arriving migrants. Anyone found to have asylum applications pending in another European Union country would be sent back there.

The deal still needs the approval of the center-left Social Democrats, the third party in Germany’s governing coalition along with Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats and their Bavarian partners, the Christian Social Democrats. The Social Democrats have opposed such plans in the past, criticizing the arrangements as “mass internment camps,” a phrase with obvious historical overtones for Germans.

The plan further stipulates that if a European partner refused to take back asylum applicants, they would be sent back “on the basis of a deal with Austria,” though it is not yet clear what that deal would entail.

But Horst Seehofer, the leader of the Christian Social Democrats, whose threat to resign pressured Ms. Merkel into accepting the deal, appeared not to be waiting for his coalition partner’s approval. He told reporters early Tuesday that he had spoken by telephone with the Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, and planned to reach out to Italy as well.

Although the number of people applying for asylum in Germany has dropped significantly in recent months, most of those who make it are crossing the Mediterranean and making their way north through Austria.

Traditionally, many migrants have entered Europe through Italy, which shares a border with Austria, and registered there. But a new, populist Italian government is now turning away migrants without registering them; it might also refuse to accept migrants previously registered in Italy but now in another country.

In light of those factors, Mr. Kurz, who owes his swift rise to power primarily to his promise to combat illegal immigration, said his country would not wait for the Germans to take action. In a joint statement on Tuesday, Mr. Kurz, Vice Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache and Interior Minister Herbert Kickl indicated that they were already drawing up plans of their own to deny migrants entry.

“Should this agreement become the German government position, we consider it necessary to take action to fend off any disadvantages for Austria and its people,” the statement said. “The Austrian government is therefore ready to take action, especially to protect our southern border.”

The Austrian leader, whose country took over the rotating presidency of the 28-member bloc on Sunday, has long called for an end to what he describes as the “waving through” of illegal migrants. That was effectively Europe’s approach during the summer of 2015 into early 2016, when more than a million people landed in Greece and made their way north through the Balkans to Austria, Germany and Scandinavia.

The deal will also need approval from the European Union. But Jean-Claude Juncker, head of the European Commission, told reporters on Tuesday in Strasbourg, France, that in a preliminary reading, “it seems to me to be in line with the law,” Reuters reported.

Last week, Mr. Juncker helped Ms. Merkel rally European leaders around the need for more coordinated, stringent policies on migration throughout the bloc.

Speaking in Brussels after the summit meeting on Friday in which leaders agreed to a compromise deal on migration, Mr. Kurz said that he was “happy about the turnaround” in Europe’s policy on migration.