Border security

Paris attacks: The crisis of Europe’s borders

Europe's open borders were already under strain from the refugee crisis. After the attacks in Paris there are increasing doubts about whether they can survive without being reinforced.

Firstly - and not unexpectedly - the far right has used the crisis to challenge Europe's passport-free zone as guaranteed by the Schengen agreement. Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Front in France, called passport-free travel "madness" and insisted: "We have to reinstate our national borders."

Some have directly connected the refugee crisis with the events in Paris. In Germany, the anti-Islamist protest group Pegida - which holds weekly protests in Dresden - said on Monday that "the attacks don't come out of nowhere; they are the result of the immigration policy."