Athens – ESI on migration politics

7 November 2025
Gerald presenting at the FES in Athens. Photo: Gerald Knaus
Gerald presenting at the FES in Athens. Photo: Gerald Knaus

ESI’s Gerald Knaus gave a keynote presentation to the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) in Athens, Greece. FES is the think-tank associated with Germany’s ruling Social Democratic Party. At the event, titled “Germany, Greece, and the future of European borders”, Gerald described to his Greek audience the status of the migration debate in Germany. He further discussed ways to better control migration across Europe legally and ethically.

Gerald began by noting that this has been an exceptional decade for migration in Europe, with levels of movement unseen since the Second World War – with Greece at the very centre. Gerald warned that the resulting perception of uncontrolled migration has fuelled the anti-democratic far-right across the West, pointing to the rise of Trump in the US, the AfD in Germany, and Reform in the UK, among others.

Emphasizing the danger this rise will pose if unchecked, Gerald argued that irregular migration must be reduced without abandoning the rule of law. He cited the EU–Turkey deal and its effect on arrivals in Greece as proof that arrivals and deaths can be greatly reduced in a legal, human way. He proposed a “Project Zero 2026,” calling for a migration deal between the UK and the EU member states where the EU would accept the return of migrants who cross the Channel illegally and the UK would promise to resettle migrants directly from the EU. Gerald then noted that this success could then be replicated with partners beyond Europe’s shores.