Conference of Justice Ministers: Justice Senator wants to combat foreign influence on elections

Berlin’s new Justice Senator Felor Badenberg (independent) sees the issue of combating false reports, hate speech, disinformation and propaganda on the Internet as a necessary focus at the Justice Ministers’ Conference starting today, Thursday, in Berlin.

“A very important question is how to prevent influence on elections and whether criminal law offers the right instruments for this,” Badenberg told the German Press Agency.

“I’m addressing this because I dealt with it intensively in my old position at the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution in the run-up to the federal elections,” she emphasized. “It’s about the influence of foreign actors like Russia, China, Iran and Turkey with the aim of influencing elections by spreading misinformation.”

Also digitization topic

Berlin is chairing the conference of justice ministers and senators this year, which lasts until this Friday. She is very much looking forward to the meeting under her leadership, the agenda reflects topics “that are very topical in terms of social and legal policy,” said Badenberg, who has been in office for the CDU since April and is thus a political one for the first time in her career position.

“It will be about how we prevent the inclusion of enemies of the constitution in the legal preparatory service, about the big question of digitization in the field of justice and the dangers in the digital space and how we want to deal with it,” said Badenberg. Legal issues relating to families will also be discussed, for example when it comes to the protection of children and young people.