Opinion
What must be done to prevent terrorist attacks? Anyone who wants to improve internal security must be prepared to sacrifice sacred cows. A bill by Nancy Faser provides initial clues.
The quickly demanded expansion of knife-free zones or a tightening of gun laws are certainly not the answer. The entrances to city festivals would then have to be controlled so strictly that the spirit of a festival like the one we like to celebrate would be lost. And where would all the controllers come from that would be needed for this?
And yet it is more control that we need. But in a different place.
At the top of the list are the security authorities: they must be given powers that allow them to act in the same way as police and secret services do in countries like the USA, France or Israel, all democratic and liberal countries like us. Up to now, the information that has enabled us to prevent Islamist attacks has almost always come from these countries.
A new one from Interior Minister Nancy Faeser contains the first extensions of powers for the Federal Criminal Police Office and the Federal Police, such as the use of facial recognition software. But resistance is coming particularly from the Greens: in Germany, it is the sacred cow called data protection that is repeatedly opposed to the demands of the security authorities.
A turning point in internal security
In view of the obvious threat situation in which Germany finds itself, a turning point is long overdue here too. Just as we have no longer been able to rely solely on other countries for defense since February 2022, we should finally be able to stand on our own two feet when it comes to internal security. In order to detect the planning of terrorist attacks at an early stage, monitoring communications, especially via social networks such as Telegram, is essential. If you search, you can find Islamist propaganda here in just a few clicks – and contacts to IS masterminds abroad. From now on, the maxim should apply: human lives are more important than data protection.
It is also true that since 2015, the year of the so-called refugee crisis, the number of (attempted) Islamist attacks in Germany has increased significantly. In Baden-Württemberg, the proportion of people with foreign passports exceeded the 50 percent mark for the first time this year. Statistics and hair-raising individual cases, such as the recent case of a 17-year-old Syrian knife attacker in Stuttgart who committed 34 crimes in two and a half years, reveal a feeling of loss of control that has become increasingly widespread in society over the past few years. Each new case causes acceptance of a humane refugee policy to decline, leaving behind a feeling of helplessness at best, and anger at worst – which right-wing populists in particular know how to exploit to their advantage in elections.
Border controls are a means against terror
Who are the people really who are still coming to us in their hundreds of thousands every year, across the open borders that connect us with most of the countries around us? North Rhine-Westphalia’s CDU Interior Minister Herbert Reul has once again called for tighter controls on these borders. During the border controls during the European Football Championship, over 8,000 people were prevented from entering the country – so they are clearly an effective tool in the fight against people smuggling and illegal migration.
Probably also a means of combating terrorism: A trial has just begun in Düsseldorf against a group of Central Asians who wanted to carry out Islamist attacks in Germany – they had all entered Germany from Ukraine since February 2022. The Solingen attacker could probably have been prevented from entering the country with border controls. Coming from Bulgaria, he came to Germany in December 2022 and applied for asylum. More control is needed. Because even if many politicians are now calling for faster and more deportations – the painful experience of German authorities shows that once you have made it into Germany, it is only with great legal and practical effort that you can get out of the country again. Especially if you come from a country like Syria or Afghanistan.
Open borders within the EU have also been classified as sacred cows in German debates over the past few years. But anyone who wants to improve people’s perceived and real security must be prepared to sacrifice sacred cows.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
