The Bundestag has approved a major overhaul of Germany’s intelligence laws, granting the country’s foreign and domestic spy services broader powers to combat espionage, terrorism and sabotage. The vote was 309 in favor, 190 against and 71 abstentions, clearing the way for the most substantial revision of the legal framework in decades.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, who championed the legislation, has described it as a “reform of the century,” arguing that it is necessary to confront growing threats from foreign powers. “We are the target of hybrid threats,” he said, adding that “Germany is a theater of operations for terrorism, extremism and foreign powers.”
The changes affect two agencies: the BND, Germany’s federal intelligence service responsible for foreign intelligence, and the BfV, the domestic Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. For historical reasons, German intelligence has mainly concentrated on gathering information rather than taking action on it. The new law moves both services toward operational measures.
Under the legislation, BND agents will be able to conduct covert operations abroad, including sabotage. The government describes the range of possible actions as including paralyzing the servers of state-sponsored hacker groups, disrupting disinformation networks or even interfering with supply chains for weapons.
For the BfV, agents will no longer be limited to collecting information. For the first time, they will be permitted to take protective action against property and IT systems when specific threats are identified. That includes dismantling or breaking explosives or weapons, diverting or blocking data flows during cyberattacks, deleting or falsifying data stored for malicious purposes, and planting false information on those involved.
BfV agents will also be allowed to enter homes covertly under certain conditions, provided the measure is authorized in advance. They will gain wider powers of digital surveillance, including monitoring encrypted telecommunications and carrying out online searches. AI-supported data analysis and biometric image matching on the internet will also be available to them.
The government says the reform responds to an increase in foreign espionage, particularly from Russia, China and Iran. Officials point to a series of incidents. In August, a drone carrying an explosive device was discovered at Leipzig Airport close to Ukrainian cargo planes. The bomb failed to explode, apparently because its detonator was faulty. German authorities say Russia was behind the attack.
The law has drawn bitter criticism from some opposition politicians. Clara Bünger, security spokeswoman for the Left Party, said Dobrindt was creating a new German secret police. She told public broadcaster ARD that the law was “a monster… summoning ghosts that we will probably never be able to get rid of.” The separation between the police and the secret service, she warned, was “being eroded,” a principle she described as a lesson learned from the Nazi era. “This means the secret service is being granted executive powers and will not only be allowed to act pre-emptively, but will also be granted police powers,” she said.
Dobrindt has rejected that characterization, saying it is “madness” to think the law means Germany is creating a new secret police.
Sonja Eichwede of the center-left Social Democrats, part of Germany’s governing coalition, defended the reforms, saying they would make a significant contribution to ensuring the country’s democracy was “robust and resilient.”