Germany's center-right parties have called for the special stationary border controls introduced for the Euro 2024 men's football tournament to be extended, citing what they see as successes in stemming illegal immigration and fighting crime. However, the government says that, though those successes are real, stationary border checks are costly and less effective than mobile controls. Many critics say they are also damaging to the economy in the long term.

Christian Dürr, parliamentary party leader for the neoliberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), the smallest party in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition government, spoke out in favor of extending the controls. These would "enable us to catch those who want to enter the country illegally very effectively," Dürr told the Funke Media Group newspapers.

Similarly, Martin Huber, secretary general of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), told the DPA news agency that the new stationary controls are "indispensable" for internal security and stopping illegal immigration.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) deployed some 22,000 police officers throughout Euro 2024, both at the games and to impose extra static controls at all of Germany's borders — they were introduced a week before the football tournament began on June 14 and will remain in........

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