Germany Struggles to Balance Terror Defense With Individual Rights Parties forming a new government debate stricter immigration checks, tougher laws and citizen surveillance By William Wilkes
https://www.wsj.com/articles/germany-struggles-to-balance-terror-defense-with-individual-rights-1509793200
“As liberals we defend the freedom of the citizen,” Frank Elbe, FDP member and former German ambassador to Japan, Poland, India and Switzerland said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in September. But, he added, “an individual can only enjoy his freedom if he lives in security.”
BERLIN–Germany’s antiterror posture is facing a shake-up as parties locked in talks about forming the country’s next government wrangle over how to balance a strong state and individual liberties.
The arrest this week of a 19-year-old Syrian man suspected of building a remote-controlled bomb in northern Germany was a stark reminder of how acute a threat Germany still faces even though it hasn’t had a large-scale attack for almost a year.
And this week’s atrocity in Manhattan, in which a suspected Islamist radical mowed down cyclists and pedestrians with a rented truck, underscored the near-impossible task authorities face in preventing crude yet devastating plots.
Security experts see Germany as particularly exposed because of the outgoing government’s decision to open the country’s doors to nearly two million asylum seekers—most of them undocumented—since 2015. Since then, security officials have attributed most terrorist attacks perpetrated in the country to recently arrived migrants.
But how much Berlin can harden its security stance in response to the mounting challenges is in the balance as the three parties that have pledged to try to form a coalition government under Chancellor Angela Merkel seek to reconcile their views. The talks began late last month and are expected to stretch for weeks.
After taking a liberal stance on immigration for years, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives now want stricter checks on immigration as well as tougher terror laws and more resources for police and justice. The party called during the campaign for another 15,000 police officers to be hired.
It also wants to centralize the work of the domestic intelligence agency, which is now largely under the authority of the federal states, to permit better coordination across government.
The pro-business Free Democratic Party, once highly suspicious of state surveillance of citizens, has moderated its stance somewhat after recent terrorist attacks, calling for greater powers for federal security agencies and more police. But the party could still oppose Conservative push for more broad-based surveillance techniques. The FDP would also like to make it easier for federal agencies to share information on suspects.
“As liberals we defend the freedom of the citizen,” Frank Elbe, FDP member and former German ambassador to Japan, Poland, India and Switzerland said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in September. But, he added, “an individual can only enjoy his freedom if he lives in security.”
Germany’s security and intelligence agencies already face some of the most severe constraints on their prerogatives among Western democracies, a legacy of the country’s Communist and Nazi dictatorships. Germany’s 16 states have their own surveillance laws, making it difficult for security services to investigate terrorist cells operating across state borders.
Raphael Bossong, security expert at the German Institute for International and Security in Berlin said Germany needs to harmonize its security laws to allow for tighter surveillance, adding it is “only halfway along the road” to a unified approach to counterterrorism despite the acute threat. CONTINUE AT SITE
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