Closing borders Electoral pressures put EU's freedom of movement under threat

In 2015, when more than 1.3 million people headed to Europe, mostly fleeing a brutal war in Syria, the response of Germany's chancellor, Angela Merkel, was to say: "Wir schaffen das" ("We can manage this"), and open the country's borders.

- Jon Henley

Less than a decade later, and faced with a flow of irregular arrivals less than 10% of what it was at the peak of the bloc's migration crisis, EU capitals are increasingly saying: "No, we can't." Or, perhaps more accurately, "we won't." Under intense political pressure from far-right parties in power in half a dozen member states and advancing with almost every election in others, governme