As Markus Söder Germany supposedly wants to make it safer

As is well known, modesty is not the first virtue of Markus Söder. This applies to himself, but also to the Free State he ruled. “You know Bavaria is the safest country in Germany”said Söder recently when presenting the union and SPD coalition agreement. Therefore, the CSU he led will also take over the Federal Ministry of the Interior. “Bavarian security philosophy will be found there”promised the head of government.

And indeed: According to crime statistics, Bavaria has been the safest federal state for many years. The Free State has regularly reported the lowest crime rate for a quarter of a century. – There were almost three times as many in Berlin. Even other countries such as Saxony-Anhalt count almost twice as many crimes. And this despite the fact that Bavaria has a comparatively low police density.

So what makes Bavaria better? And how much substance is the claim to make Germany safer?

Söder is a master of political self-marketing-this has been clear since his popular Instagram appearances at the latest. But Söder shows influencer potential not only in photos of his lunch or videos on the Advent wreath. He can also convince in security issues.

“The more often you repeat that Bavaria is the safest federal state, the more the citizens believe”says Michael Kubiciel, chair owner at the legal faculty of the University of Augsburg. This strengthens the important subjective feeling of security of the population and counteracts the expiry counts from right.

In addition to Rhineland-Palatinate, Hesse and Schleswig-Holstein, people in Bavaria feel the safest. According to statistics from 2017, only the correlation to criminal offenses statistics is obvious: in Saxony-Anhalt the rate was already 30 percent.

“The high feeling of security in Bavaria is the result of decades of security policy”says Kubiciel. It is difficult to say which measures were specifically part of the success model of Bavaria – or which factors contribute exactly to the low crime rate. “Bavaria is pursuing a consistent policy of needles.” For example, investigation in Bavaria would be discontinued less frequently and less generously than in other federal states.

According to the Bavarian State Office for Statistics – on the national average, the rate was 59 percent. “After a warning shot, it is also carried out in Bavaria”says Kubiciel.

Especially with drug offenses, the Bavarian police are consistently working. After the nationwide legalization of cannabis has been decided, Bavaria was the first federal state to adopt its own catalog of fines. Anyone who violates the consumption bans defined in the Cannabis Act pays up to 500 euros in the Free State.

As safe as Bavaria is, there is also so much criticism of the measures that contribute to this low crime rate. For example, there is the veil’s search, which was introduced in Bavaria in 1995. It is primarily intended to combat cross -border crime. In individual cases this also works:

However, there are no clear evidence that veil investigations actually prevent serious crimes or attacks. For this purpose, people with a migration background are disproportionately checked. “The occasional person control always affects the weakest in society”says Thomas Wüppesahl from the Federal Working Group on critical police officers

According to Wüppesahl, around half of the controlled people in Hesse would have foreign citizenship and a place of residence in Germany. In 95 percent of the reviewers, there was no suspicion of a criminal offense or misconduct. There are no comparable numbers for Bavaria – whoever appeals to suspicion -independent controls.

The police tasks law introduced in 2018 also caused criticism. Because with the new law, civil servants are not allowed to “concrete”but already with one “impending danger” intervention. Not only the vague term was objected to, but also the associated expansion of the surveillance powers.

Bayern’s security policy may lead to low crime statistics – but it is partly based on considerable interventions in freedom rights. And it is precisely this policy that Söder now wants to bring to Berlin. When presenting the coalition agreement, the CSU boss summed up the goals of his party: “Law and Order, Hightech and Home.”

But how realistic is it that Söder is successful with it? Not particularly, says Kubiciel from the University of Augsburg. “What has grown in Bavaria for decades cannot be transmitted in four or eight years”according to the lawyer. In addition, many of the measures that have contributed to the Bavarian crime balance are pure state matter. In addition, economic and socio -economic factors often have a greater influence on the security situation than targeted prevention measures.

“The many years of uncertainty are over”said Söder when presenting the coalition agreement. But maybe the sentence is like his Instagram posts: it doesn’t have to be real-the main thing is that it looks good.