End of Schengen Zone at the Hungarian-Austrian border? Locals protested
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Tens of thousands of Hungarians live in the westernmost villages of Hungary and work in Eastern Austria for higher salaries. However, to do so, they have to cross the border daily, generating an immense hike concerning traffic in small Eastern Austrian villages. One of the villages lost patience and closed their border crossing two years ago. The result is that Hungarians must take a 30-kilometre-long detour, which is why they protested yesterday.
Does the end of the Schengen Zone draw near?
Many Hungarians work abroad to earn much more than they would in Hungary. The number of Hungarian expats living in Western Europe is in the hundreds of thousands, and among their number one target countries are the United Kingdom (before Brexit), Germany and Austria. Since Austria and Hungary are neighbouring countries, many Hungarians decide not to move to Austria but to live (and spend their higher salaries) in Western Hungary while working in Austria.
Such employees must cross the border at least twice daily, generating traffic jams even at low-traffic border crossings. Furthermore, they must cross several Eastern Austrian villages to reach their destinations, chiefly one of the larger cities like Vienna or Wiener Neustadt (Bécsújhely). Such Eastern Austrian villages were silent and calm before Hungary’s Schengen Zone accession (December 2007). Now, they are full of cars carrying the Hungarian workforce. As a result, locals were dissatisfied and staged several protests to stop the influx of Hungarian employees on the road.
One of the villages, Schattendorf (Somfalva), took serious steps to solve the situation. Securing the backing of the local government, Thomas Hoffmann decided to close the Schattendorf-Ágfalva border crossing in 2023. As a result, Hungarians must take a detour of more than 30 kms. On Saturday, Hungarians protested against the decision on the Ágfalva side of the border. Telex wrote that nobody can cross the border regardless of whether they have permission or not.
As our Politicians would say – it is important to respect the dead (Christian thing). Very disrespectful, racing past.
Kidding aside – the “Protecting our Borders!” chants for the Hungarian domestic audience do not drown out the actions of our Politicians:
https://dailynewshungary.com/2500-foreign-human-smugglers-released-hungary/
We Turks, support our Hungarian brothers and the free movement of goods and persons between Hungary and Austria.