Germans boost security without ban on burka

After 24 heated hours of discussion – on banning burkas and stripping German Islamic State supporters of their citizenship – Berlin’s federal interior minister presented measures yesterday to boost domestic security, while distancing himself from the most controversial proposals.

Weeks after a series of violent attacks rocked Germany, Thomas de Maizière promised to boost police and security force spending, step-up cybersecurity measures and expedite deportation of non-German nationals who commit crimes or are deemed dangerous.

“In this way, we will in future increasingly use the instrument of deportation for foreign criminals and people likely to cause a threat,” said the minister, emphasising measures he said could be passed in the months before next year’s federal election.

But the debate over German security is not over yet. Next week, state interior ministers from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) meet to discuss their own security proposals – the leaked draft of which contained the most contentious measures, including prohibiting full veils in public.

Public confidence

As Germany enters a year-long state and federal election season, some in Merkel’s CDU are anxious to shore up their law-and-order profile before they face voters.

But de Maizière warned his state colleagues not to fight battles they will only lose – banning veils is likely to fall foul of the constitutional court – in a bid to win back voters defecting to the populist fringes. Instead, the senior Merkel ally suggested the CDU should focus on concrete proposals that will boost public confidence and improve safety.

“No one can guarantee there will be no more attacks, no one can guarantee absolute security,” said de Maizière. The role of the state in times of crisis, he added, was not to micromanage people’s lives but to close security gaps and “define limits” of behaviour.

Among the new measures Germany needed, he said, were criminal police screening of all asylum applicants and renewed efforts to reduce the time asylum seekers can remain after an application fails – a window of opportunity exploited by a suicide bomber with Islamic State (Isis) links last month in Ansbach.

New measures are required too, he suggested, to criminalise anyone who pushes terrorist propaganda or fights for terrorist bodies such as Isis, while holding German citizenship.

“I propose that German citizens who are fighting with terror militias in other countries, and take part in combat operations there, if they have a second nationality – and only then – they would lose German citizenship,” said de Maizière at a press conference.

That is a notably softer position than that espoused in a CDU position paper, which proposes a general abolition of dual citizenship.

Dual citizenship

But that would have to be decided at federal level in Berlin and the Social Democrats (SPD), Merkel’s junior coalition partner, say they will never reverse the dual citizenship law they introduced in 2000 to boost integration.

“The SPD is ready to talk about anything that will contribute to heightening security,” said party leader and vice-chancellor Sigmar Gabriel. “But we’re not available for populist rush jobs.”

The fact the interior minister had backed away from bans on burkas and dual nationality, Gabriel added, was a welcome “slap in the face” for CDU “agitators”.

The federal interior minister also backed away from another idea: modifying medical confidentiality laws to make it easier to police a patient a doctor felt posed a terror risk.

That is a proposal flagged many times over recent months after mental health issues overshadowed last year’s Germanwings plane crash, as well as the Ansbach suicide bombing and mass shooting in Munich. But doctors’ groups reacted angrily to the idea of political interference and de Maizière said no immediate action would be taken.

After Germany has implemented 18 major security packages in the last 15 years, the senior Merkel ally insisted new laws and fresh bans were not always the answer in an uncertain world. “You cannot forbid everything you reject,” he said, “and I reject the wearing of the burka.”