Is Schengen Dead?

It looks more and more like it.

Why? Because Merkel’s irresponsible decision to throw Germany’s borders open to 1.1 million migrants has killed it.

There is some interesting analysis here and here, which, despite the brave face put on Wolfgang Schäuble’s remarks in Brussels, reveals a deep, new crisis hitting the EU.

Last year the major threat to the EU was the surge of democracy in Greece against austerity, but in the end the EU – and above all Germany – smashed any hope of that and the Greek government meekly accepted the horrible truth that it is little but an economic colony of the EU.

How paradoxical it is that Germany may have indirectly killed the EU, since, as Jean-Claude Juncker says in line with his neoliberal thinking, what’s the point of having the Euro without Schengen?

And now this year another – and quite possibly far more serious – crisis will hit the EU as the consequences of Merkel’s policies will follow.

Schengen may collapse even further. There will be more backlash against a policy that people simply didn’t vote for and many oppose, as well as the social and economic problems caused by 1.1 million new people suddenly in Europe but from a different culture. The mass sexual assaults in Germany during the New Year hardly augur well for the future. And how are all these people going to get employment? And then there is the nightmare of security concerns.

Even worse, there are signs that another massive wave of illegal immigration into Europe will happen this year, despite the tightening of borders (see here and here).

The million dollar question: what will be the political consequences of this? Will it lead to a vehement anti-EU backlash and the collapse of the EU itself?

Unfortunately, the left is almost totally incapable of seeing that open borders and mass immigration are a catastrophe. It is more likely that the political future of Europe belongs to the populist right or (possibly after a change of heart) a mainstream right devoted to an anti-EU, nationalist and anti-open borders agenda.