Bundestag: The Office for the Protection of the Constitution should be able to limit cooperation with the state

With the AfD, a party that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has in mind could come into government in Saxony-Anhalt. What will then become of cooperation in the security area?

The AfD emerged as the strongest force in the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt in September. In order for their top candidate, Ulrich Siegmund (M.), to become Prime Minister, they would also need votes from other ranks.

Berlin. In the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, cooperation with individual countries should be restricted in the future. This emerges from an amendment to the planned reform of intelligence law.

The motion, which the Bundestag's Interior Committee is due to discuss this Wednesday, says verbatim: "If there are actual indications that extremely important security interests of the federal government or a state will be significantly impaired in the cooperation, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution can, if the majority of the constitutional protection authorities of the states agree, make adjustments in the obligation to cooperate, including the availability of the intelligence information system, binding for the constitutional protection authorities." If there is imminent danger, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution should be able to make such adjustments on its own in a binding manner.

After the AfD's election victory in Saxony-Anhalt, Hamburg's Interior Senator Andy Grote (SPD) called on his federal and state colleagues to protect the security authorities against extremist influence. In Saxony-Anhalt, a firmly right-wing extremist party is on the threshold of government power.

“State power and thus control over security authorities in the hands of an anti-constitutional party with close contacts to Russia is a serious security risk,” explained the chairman of the conference of federal and state interior ministers (IMK).

The planned change, which the Bundestag is due to decide on after discussions in the Interior Committee on Friday, is justified by possible serious security risks. These could arise “if secret protection was not comprehensively guaranteed institutionally in a state office for the protection of the constitution”. This would jeopardize the functionality of the entire Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

Both the federal security authorities and the IMK had emphasized in recent months that even if cooperation with a country's Office for the Protection of the Constitution was restricted, information about specific dangers, such as preparations for a possible Islamist terrorist attack, would still be shared.