Internal security: Bundestag discusses measures for more security

The Bundestag is continuing its deliberations on the 2025 budget and is also discussing the new “security package” of the traffic light coalition for the first time. It includes measures that the traffic light coalition presented after the suspected Islamist knife attack in Solingen that left three people dead. It involves a change in gun laws, expanded powers to combat extremism and terrorism, and new regulations in residence law. The approval of the Bundesrat is only mandatory for some of the measures – which is why the SPD, Greens and FDP have presented two draft laws.

General knife ban planned in certain places

This concerns the authority to carry out biometric comparisons of publicly accessible data from the Internet. According to the draft, the aim is “in particular to identify and locate suspected terrorists and criminal suspects”. A refugee will lose his protection status if he returns to his home country without a valid reason, for example for a holiday.

To increase safety, it is planned to further restrict the use of knives in public spaces. A general knife ban will apply on long-distance buses and trains, at festivals and other large events. There will also be a ban on switchblades – with exceptions for hunters, for example.

Consultations on the federal budget for 2025

The Interior Ministry’s budget for 2025 will also be discussed for the first time. Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) stressed that there would be no cuts in internal security. However, the Greens have criticized planned cuts in spending on integration courses.

The draft budget for the Federal Ministry of the Interior currently provides for expenditure of 13.75 billion euros. That is around three percent more than in the previous year. There is an increase primarily in the Federal Police and in the estimated expenditure for IT projects and the digitization of the administration.

Judges’ Association sees overwhelmed authorities and courts

The German Judges’ Association accuses the FDP of blocking investments in the security authorities. “The security package of the traffic light coalition has become a security package in which the most effective measure is missing,” said Federal Managing Director Sven Rebehn to the editorial network Germany. The key to more security lies in better law enforcement. Authorities that are often overwhelmed and courts that are overburdened are increasingly unable to keep up with their growing tasks. “Unfortunately, the FDP has so far blocked the proposal by the Greens and SPD to invest massively in better-positioned security authorities and in a defensive constitutional state together with the states.”

The police union (GdP) is also demanding more money for internal security. “Anyone who wants to see more police officers on the streets must implement the police’s major digital projects immediately,” because this would free up resources, said GdP federal chairman Jochen Kopelke to the German Press Agency. “We also need more riot police and heavy equipment for what is still to come.”

FDP General Secretary appeals to Union

Meanwhile, it is unclear whether the Union and the traffic light coalition will still come together on the issue of migration. On Tuesday, CDU leader Friedrich Merz declared that talks with the traffic light coalition on tightening asylum rules had failed. FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai has now appealed to Merz not to refuse further debates on stricter asylum laws and to find a common solution with the traffic light coalition. He told “Bild”: “We are close to the Union on migration. We are still ready to implement their proposals together. There is no time to lose now. The Union and its leader Friedrich Merz must return to the negotiating table.”

Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier now believes that the traffic light coalition has a duty to solve the immigration problem on its own. “If the opposition does not join in now, then an attempt must be made to present a solution that contributes to a solution, using consensus within the coalition,” said Steinmeier during his visit to Egypt. He maintains that the solution to the migration issue is a concern for people in Germany. “That is why I also said that, given the state of our democracy, it would be good if the parties of the democratic center could present a joint solution.” He did not want to judge from Cairo who was responsible for the fact that this was not happening, said Steinmeier.

Sharp criticism from the Jusos of the traffic light coalition’s course

The chairmen of the Jusos and the Green Youth, Philipp Türmer and Svenja Appuhn, criticized the traffic light coalition’s asylum policy in a joint guest article for the “Tagesspiegel”. “Traffic light politicians are being driven by the far right to make ever new isolation decisions,” they wrote. The two chairmen accused the SPD, the Greens and the FDP of having reacted to the Islamist attack in Solingen with a “bidding war” over further restrictions on asylum law.