Fearful of a domino effect if Germany closes its borders, Austria staged a high-profile training exercise yesterday to show how it could deal with an influx of refugees along its frontier with Slovenia. "A state which can't protect its borders when needed loses its credibility," said Austrian interior minister Herbert Kickl, who oversaw the exercise along with defence minister Mario Kunasek. “I’m strongly determined that events like those in 2015 must never happen again.”

Kickl said he wanted to prevent people from abusing the right to asylum. It is what the people expect from us.”

Kickl’s far-right Freedom Party has pushed for a hard line against migrants for years and saw a surge in support following the 2015 migrant crisis, when thousands of people fleeing war and hardship at home poured through Europe’s open borders daily, triggering a humanitarian and political crisis that has left deep divisions on the continent. Migration has returned to the top of the political agenda in Europe after the Bavarian sister party to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats last week gave her an ultimatum to broker a European immigration deal.
Austrian troops and police conduct a border exercise simulating a possible mass arrival of migrants similar to one in 2015, amid tensions within the European Union over migrant rescue ships and fears that Germany may close its borders.