Germany's Bundestag approved limited intervention powers for its intelligence services, a security expansion that revives a democratic tension between preventing threats and protecting civil liberties.
The Bundestag's roll-call tally showed 308 votes in favor, 190 against and 71 abstentions Friday. The bill covers the foreign Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the domestic Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).
The BND may act against certain threats abroad, including by disrupting systems used in state-backed cyberattacks. The BfV gains authority for limited covert interventions in Germany, but its measures may not include coercion against people, according to the Bundestag.
The government argued the changes address cases in which the BND identifies a threat but no other authority can respond, and situations where police cannot act against a threat identified by the BfV. The Bundestag's account also cited the government's concern that security agencies can become reliant on intelligence from partner countries when they lack authority to intervene.
Green lawmaker Konstantin von Notz criticized the bill's civil-rights safeguards. The Left's Clara Bünger argued it weakens the separation between intelligence services and police. The Deutscher Anwaltverein (DAV), Germany's bar association, said the draft could weaken protections for confidential lawyer-client communications.
The measure follows a proposal EconoTimes previously described as combining intervention powers with data-retention rules. That earlier account of the bill also said an Independent Oversight Council would review the most intrusive individual operations before they proceed.
Separately, the Bundestag adopted a resolution calling for lawmakers to submit a bill in 2027 to strengthen the Parliamentary Oversight Panel (PKGr). The proposed changes would broaden the panel's reporting and document-access rights and enable exchanges with oversight bodies in Germany's states. The resolution set no specific date for the proposal.
