The head of the Slovak government indicated that the problem lies in ensuring the protection of the external borders of the Schengen area of ​​free movement of persons in Hungary. He stated this at a press conference after the cabinet meeting.

“The work on the part of the Czech Republic failed a little here. Personally, I don’t think it’s done that way. It really needs to be solved by communication, not by such a surprise,” said Heger.

The prime minister added that Slovakia is part of the Schengen area and that it is “absurd to expect” Slovakia to protect the border between Slovakia and Hungary or Slovakia and Austria.

According to Heger, the established controls are not correct because they go “against the meaning of Schengen”.

In addition to the Czech Republic, Austria will also start border controls with Slovakia from Thursday. Vienna has justified measures to prevent people smugglers from finding alternative routes after the borders of the Czech Republic and Slovakia are guarded.

Roman Mikulec, the Slovak Ministry of the Interior, spoke differently than the prime minister. Heger’s government colleague said that the introduction of controls on Slovakia’s borders with Austria and the Czech Republic was coordinated with Bratislava. “It is not true that they were introduced just like that,” said the minister, according to Denník N.

According to him, these are not measures directed against Slovakia, and he rejected that the actions of the Czech Republic and Austria would indicate the failure of Slovak policy.

The politician also said that Slovakia may introduce controls at the border with Hungary. For now, however, they are leaning towards the Slovak policemen helping the Hungarians with control at the border with Serbia.

Mikulce was criticized by the Slovak press on Wednesday. For example, the Pravda newspaper wrote in connection with the Czech Republic’s decision to restore control that the Ministry of the Interior had been sleeping soundly and now the alarm rang.

“The decision did not come as a bolt from the blue. A new wave of migration arrived at the beginning of summer. The Czech side has been negotiating with Slovak colleagues in recent days and requested that measures be taken on our side. In vain,” wrote the list.

The newspaper SME refers to the statement of the Czech Minister of the Interior, Vít Rakušan, who said that he asked his Slovak colleague to fulfill international agreements regarding the return of migrants and that diplomatic steps did not achieve the expected success.