EU civil war erupts as 'Cold War border' forms over migrant row

Residents on either side of a long-dormant Polish-German border are reckoning with fresh border checks as anti-immigrant division rears its head in central Europe. The boundary between the Polish and German towns of Gubin and Guben was drawn along the river Neisse in 1945, splitting the former German municipality in two. In the decades since, the border had fallen into disuse, with residents on both sides freely crossing the 68-metre bridge to travel to school and work.

Tensions between the two settlements have escalated alongside anti-immigration sentiment on the continent, however, with Warsaw and Berlin both reintroducing guards on each side of the crossing in the last few months. Guben mayor Fred Mahro said the dispute between the two countries manifested in the wardens stationed at the border, who were "looking at each other like it's the Cold War".

"We have grown used to something else; Europe can offer something different," he told the Financial Times.

"Europe is built on trust between neighbours. When that trust erodes, it hurts Europe."

Migration was a central voter issue in this year's German and Polish elections, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Prime Minister Donald Tusk both taking action to clamp down on asylum seeker entry in response to electoral concerns.

Both countries have enacted emergency measures to suspend the European Schengen legislation, in place since 2007, which enables citizens to move freely across the continent.

While Merz and Tusk, who have similar, centre-right, pro-EU political stances, enjoy a good personal relationship, the leaders have become "hostages to their domestic politics" and are all too aware of "the far-right breathing down their necks", Joanna Maria Stolarek, Polish-German director at the Heinrich Böll Foundation in Warsaw, said.

Polish border control guards have reportedly checked 493,000 people travelling from Germany and Lithuania over the five weeks from the implementation of the measures - denying entry to 185 people, mainly for a lack of valid travel documentation.

The bridge between Gubin and Guben has also become representative of on-the-ground disunity between German and Polish residents, with people on the Polish side erecting flags and banners commemorating the 1944 Warsaw uprising, during which rebels were crushed by Nazi forces.

Germany and Poland are major trading partners, making a joint policy towards migration a mutually beneficial prospect - although as distrust continues to set in, separate responses appear increasingly inevitable.

Polish defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz was defiant that German officials would "not tell us what to do in Poland". "For a long time, Poland didn't exist on the map of Europe," he added. "We fought long and hard to bring it back."

The existing controls on each side of the border are expected to be extended beyond September on the German side and for a further 60 days by Polish ministers.

"I don't see how Merz or Tursk will walk back from these border controls," Stephan Lehnstaedt, a historian based in Berlin, said. "It's like disarmament - the first one to act looks weak. Rightwing populists will criticise them the moment they do."