Europe hopes brutality at the border will keep refugees away

COMPARE AND contrast. In 2015 thousands of irregular migrants and asylum-seekers entered Hungary, en route to Germany. Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, built a fence along the country’s southern border to stop them. The European Commission chided Mr Orban. “We have only just torn down walls in Europe; we should not be putting them up,” tutted a flack for the European Commission. Fast forward five years, and ugly scenes erupted at the EU’s borders once again. Migrants trying to reach Europe on a dinghy were greeted by a Greek vessel, whose crew hit the boat with sticks and fired warning shots at them. This time the commission had a different response. “I thank Greece for being our European aspida [shield] in these times,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. What changed?