The Berlin regime has secured broad new powers for its intelligence services after lawmakers in the Bundestag approved a reform package on Friday, responding to mounting concerns over drone sightings, cyberattacks and hybrid threats. The vote allows the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) to counter foreign cyberattacks with active measures, ranging from deleting or manipulating data to disabling systems and, if necessary, destroying physical devices such as drones that could be used against Germany. The package also permits covert entry into homes and business premises under certain conditions to prepare surveillance operations, though officials say agencies will not be allowed to use force against people. An independent oversight board is to monitor the expanded authorities.
Key Takeaways: The Bundestag approved a reform expanding BND and related intelligence powers on Friday; the BND may respond to foreign cyberattacks with countermeasures including disabling systems and destroying drones; covert entry for surveillance preparation is allowed under conditions, with an independent oversight board and a ban on force against people.
The reform reflects growing alarm in Berlin over hybrid attacks and the perceived limits of Germany’s post-war security architecture. BKA President Holger Münch told the agency’s annual meeting in Berlin this week that today’s hybrid attacks are challenging the “separation principle,” under which police conduct investigations while intelligence services gather information, with data exchange allowed only under strict conditions. Münch has long objected to this division and has called for broader police powers and closer cooperation with the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the domestic intelligence agency responsible for countering espionage and sabotage. The Berlin regime presents the changes as a necessary response to foreign and domestic threats, but critics say the safeguards remain insufficient.
The separation principle traces back to lessons from Nazi dictatorship, when the Gestapo operated largely outside judicial constraints and became a central instrument of terror used to oppress and murder Jews, Sinti and Roma, homosexuals, communists, social democrats and many others. The Allied powers that defeated Nazi Germany decided after World War II that police and intelligence services should remain institutionally separate and possess different powers. Historian Sönke Neitzel of the University of Potsdam said at the BKA’s autumn conference that the principle is understandable in historical context but described it as “nonsense” in light of today’s threat landscape, arguing it is no longer necessary in a country that has been a constitutional democracy for decades.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt of the CSU has said he wants to preserve the separation principle in its essential form, arguing that even a more extensive exchange of data would not violate it. At the same time, he has made clear that he wants to transform the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the BND into “real intelligence services.” The reform brings him a significant step closer to that goal, with the governing coalition of the CDU/CSU and the Social Democrats voting in favor, according to the report. Opposition lawmakers specializing in domestic policy warned against granting powers that are too broad, and civil-liberties advocates are likely to scrutinize the covert-entry provisions and counterhacking mandate.
The next phase will focus on implementation and oversight: how the independent board is appointed, how covert entries are authorized, and how far the BND’s countermeasures can go without triggering legal challenges or diplomatic escalation. The Berlin regime has framed the package as essential to protecting critical infrastructure and public safety, but the debate over security, privacy and democratic control is far from settled. Lawmakers, courts and oversight bodies are expected to face early tests as the new powers are put into practice.
Source: www.dw.com