Germany's intelligence services are set to gain sweeping new powers following a reform passed by the Bundestag on Friday. The changes will give the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) far-reaching new authorities, transforming them into what Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) described as "real intelligence services".
Opposition parties warned that the reform could pave the way for "digital mass surveillance" and potentially interfere with citizens' privacy. Until now, Germany's intelligence services have primarily gathered information. The government says the reform is a response to the growing threat of hybrid attacks, including those originating from Russia, as well as increasing links between organised crime and state actors.
Germany is an "operational area for terrorism, extremism and foreign powers", Interior Minister Dobrindt told the Bundestag. Under what he called a "once-in-a-century reform", the intelligence services would become "full-fledged partners in the fight against international terrorism and state terrorism".
In future, the BND and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution will receive operational powers similar to those held by intelligence agencies in other countries, allowing them to take action to counter threats.
For example, they will be permitted to carry out cyberattacks to manipulate or delete data. Their powers to collect and analyse information will also be expanded. This includes analysing large volumes of data using artificial intelligence (AI) and comparing biometric data with information available on the internet.
Under certain conditions, the intelligence services will also be allowed to secretly enter private homes and business premises, for example, to prepare surveillance operations. However, they will not be permitted to use violence against people, unlike some intelligence agencies in countries such as Israel and the United States.
An independent oversight council will be established to monitor the intelligence services. The Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) had already undergone an initial stage of reform at the beginning of the year.
Opposition politicians responsible for domestic security policy warned that the new powers go too far. Green Party security expert Konstantin von Notz welcomed the fact that the BND would now have the necessary means to operate "on an equal footing with our partner services" in the fight against threats such as "state-terrorist attacks" from Russia.
However, he argued that Dobrindt was going too far with the powers granted to the domestic intelligence agency, particularly because interventions in the lives of citizens could take place "without transparency and legal protection". He warned that this would once again cause Dobrindt "serious problems with the Federal Constitutional Court".
Clara Bünger, domestic policy spokesperson for the Left Party parliamentary group, accused the government of building "a new German secret police" by dismantling the principle of separation between the police and intelligence services. She also warned that the reform would introduce "comprehensive AI mass surveillance".
Dobrindt dismissed these concerns, arguing that the reform would instead protect democracy. He said the German intelligence services would be subject to "the strongest controls" ever introduced. "The Stasi and the Gestapo knew no controls," he said. Addressing the AfD and the Left Party, the Interior Minister accused them of wanting to weaken democratic protection "in the middle of a shadow war that threatens our freedom".
AfD politician Christian Wirth criticised the expansion of powers granted to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. He argued that the move was intended in particular to restrict the AfD's "legal protection", including by allowing certain information to be withheld from a state-level domestic intelligence agency.
The AfD is classified as a confirmed right-wing extremist organisation in several German states. In Saxony-Anhalt, the party could appoint Germany's first AfD state premier, with Ulrich Siegmund as its candidate.
SPD parliamentary deputy leader Sonja Eichwede also rejected criticism that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution could turn into a kind of secret police. She said the agency "may only act when the police cannot". She also pointed out that the reform would strengthen the quasi-judicial oversight body responsible for monitoring the intelligence services.
CDU domestic affairs expert Alexander Throm likewise emphasised the importance of oversight alongside the expansion of intelligence powers. "Greater capabilities for the intelligence services on the one hand" must be accompanied by "strong oversight" on the other, he said. "The two belong together."
The Hartmannbund, an association representing doctors, called for "absolute protection of confidentiality for doctors".
Its chairman, Klaus Reinhardt, criticised the fact that doctors are placed at a disadvantage compared with other professionals bound by confidentiality, such as lawyers, clergy members and members of parliament, when it comes to measures carried out by the Federal Intelligence Service.
Unlike these other groups, doctors may have to have their interest in confidentiality weighed against the interest in obtaining information on a case-by-case basis.
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