Excerpt:
The hardline interior ministers of Austria, Germany and Italy have formed an “axis of the willing” to combat illegal immigration, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said Wednesday, escalating a Europe-wide row over the issue.
The announcement by Kurz in Berlin after talks with German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer marks a shot across the bow at Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is trying to pull together a deal for EU cooperation on placing asylum seekers.
Seehofer -- who is locked in an open migration feud with Merkel that is threatening the stability of her coalition government -- said that he and his far-right Austrian and Italian counterparts, Herbert Kickl and Matteo Salvini, formed their alliance this week.
Their cooperation would extend to “issues of security and terrorism”, he said, but did not offer specifics on what it would entail.