German parliament approves expansion of intel services’ powers in, outside country

Detailed summary

The reform is criticized by the opposition, who accused the German authorities of seeking to create a "secret police" to control dissenters

BERLIN, November 13. /TASS/. The Bundestag, the German parliament, has greenlighted a significant expansion of German intelligence agencies’ responsibilities both domestically and during operations abroad, with 309 lawmakers voting in favor of reforming the legislation governing the activities of these agencies, 190 voting against it, and 71 abstaining.

Thus, Germany’s Federal Intelligence service (BND, foreign intelligence) and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV, counterintelligence) will receive additional tools for monitoring telecommunications and suspects. For example, counterintelligence will be authorized not only to collect information and conduct surveillance, but also to secretly enter apartments and homes under certain conditions. Arrests and official searches remain the responsibility of the police.

The BND will be authorized to conduct "offensive" operations abroad, in particular, those aiming to disable servers of hackers who, as it believes, are supported by foreign states.

The reform is criticized by the opposition, who accused the German authorities of seeking to create a "secret police" to control dissenters.

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