The German Interior Ministry has drawn up a draft law that would significantly broaden the powers of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). The bill, put forward by Minister Alexander Dobrindt, authorizes the intelligence agency to break into private homes in secret, hack into IT systems, and delete or alter citizens’ digital data without their knowledge, bypassing any independent oversight body.
One provision that has stirred up particular debate would allow the agency to recruit 16- and 17-year-olds as confidential informants. The government justifies this measure by pointing to the younger makeup of certain extremist groups.
The bill has set off alarm bells across German society and run into sharp criticism from political quarters. Free Democratic Party leader Wolfgang Kubicki said the proposal crosses moral and ethical lines, noting the contradiction in the state’s approach to minors. AfD co-chair Alice Weidel warned that giving intelligence services a legal green light to falsify information strikes at the foundations of the rule of law.