Germany's foreign and domestic intelligence services are set to gain far-reaching new powers to combat espionage, terrorism and sabotage, after the country's parliament, the Bundestag, approved a major overhaul of the legislation governing the agencies. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, who championed the bill, has called it a "reform of the century" made necessary by growing threats from foreign powers.
In the Bundestag vote, 309 MPs backed the new law on the intelligence services, while 190 voted against and 71 abstained. The legislation grants numerous additional powers to the BND federal intelligence service and to the BfV domestic service, formally known as the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
For historical reasons, German intelligence agencies have until now focused mainly on gathering information rather than acting on it. Under the new framework, spies working for the BND, which handles foreign intelligence, will be able to conduct covert operations abroad, including acts of sabotage. That could involve paralysing the servers of state-sponsored hacker groups, disrupting disinformation networks, or even disrupting supply chains for weapons.
The domestic BfV will also move beyond pure information gathering. For the first time, its agents will be able to take protective action against property and IT systems when specific threats are identified. They will be allowed to dismantle or destroy explosives and weapons, divert or block data flows during cyber-attacks, delete or falsify data stored for malicious purposes, and plant false information on those involved.
Under certain conditions, BfV agents will additionally be permitted to enter homes covertly, although every such measure must be authorised in advance. The agency will receive wider powers of digital surveillance as well, including monitoring encrypted telecommunications and carrying out online searches, and it will be allowed to use AI-supported data analysis and biometric image matching on the internet.
The government says the reform is needed because of an increase in foreign espionage, particularly from Russia, China and Iran. "We are the target of hybrid threats," Dobrindt said. "Germany is a theatre of operations for terrorism, extremism and foreign powers." In August, a drone carrying an explosive device was discovered at Leipzig Airport, close to Ukrainian cargo planes. The device failed to explode, apparently because its detonator was faulty, and German authorities say Russia was behind the attack.
The new law has been bitterly criticised by some opposition politicians. Clara Bünger, the Left Party's security spokeswoman, said Dobrindt was creating a new German secret police, and told public broadcaster ARD that the law was "a monster.. summoning ghosts that we will probably never be able to get rid of". She warned that the separation between the police and the secret service, a lesson learned from the Nazi era, was "being eroded".
"This means the secret service is being granted executive powers and will not only be allowed to act pre-emptively, but will also be granted police powers," Bünger said. Dobrindt has rejected such warnings, arguing it is "madness" to think the law means Germany is creating a new secret police.
Sonja Eichwede of the centre-left SPD, which is part of Germany's governing coalition, defended the overhaul, saying the reforms would make a significant contribution to ensuring the country's democracy was "robust and resilient".
