After Magdeburg: German government wants data retention

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Following the attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg on December 20, the Parliamentary Control Panel for the Intelligence Services and the Bundestag's Committee on Internal Affairs were briefed by Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) and representatives of the security authorities in a special session. At the same time, the red-green federal government has now declared data retention to be its own wish.

In the Bundestag's Special Committee on Internal Affairs, the main question was why the man, who is considered to be Islamophobic and sympathizes with the AfD, had not previously been assessed as dangerous by the authorities – despite the fact that he had already stated his intentions to become violent on X and in other statements, using his real name.

After an hour-long meeting, Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser stated that not all the findings had been put together yet. The indications of a pathological psyche were striking. The aim is to identify mentally conspicuous perpetrators who are "often driven by crazy conspiracy theories" and to deal with such cases.

Faeser reiterated her commitment to the federal government's so-called security package, which only partially passed the Bundesrat. She also emphasized her demand for IP data retention. Faeser conceded that neither facial recognition databases as provided for in the security package nor data retention would have provided a remedy in this specific case: she believes that "in this case, it would certainly have been important to have a knowledge comparison, i.e. data comparison would have been an important point, but it could not have prevented it."

Federal government makes data retention its own wish

Even though data retention would not have yielded any further information about the suspect, the remaining federal government made up of the SPD and the Greens has now officially changed its position on the matter: In the early evening, deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann announced, "The storage of IP addresses is of crucial importance in the fight against crime and terrorism. The federal government would be prepared to introduce this." The federal states and the CDU/CSU parliamentary group had called for its introduction and made it a condition for their approval of the security package laws, which have not yet been passed.

FDP sees no connection to data retention

The FDP, now in opposition, warned against jumping to conclusions. Pulling all possible plans out of the drawer now is not the way to go, according to their interior politician Konstantin Kuhle. "In this case, we are talking about a perpetrator who was already known to various authorities." He called for a different approach to dealing with dangerous individuals who do not fit into the official pots: "If the perpetrator had been a classic Islamist, the attack would have been much less likely because he would have been treated differently." His data would then have been passed on –, which is why a rethink beyond the classic left-wing, right-wing extremism and terror suspect categories and files would be necessary.

The FDP were in agreement with the Greens, who remain in government. Irene Mihalic, representing the Greens, stated that the perpetrator obviously did not fit into the existing databases of suspected threats and terrorism. She warned against "distraction debates": At this point in time, ten days after the attack and at the beginning of all investigations, including criminal investigations, demands for laws were on the one hand "impious", and on the other hand it was currently not even possible to foresee what would have actually helped.

AfD open to data retention

The AfD's domestic policy spokesperson Gottfried Curio made it clear that the AfD sees the solution primarily in the deportation of foreigners who have committed crimes. However, the party is also prepared to discuss the reintroduction of data retention.

Meanwhile, in the case of the Magdeburg attack, the main focus is currently on why the many pieces of the puzzle regarding the perpetrator were not put together correctly. In particular, the question of why several federal states had dealt with the perpetrator, but nothing had been done apart from dangerous contacts, must be clarified, demanded SPD interior politician Sebastian Hartmann. For the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Andrea Lindholz (CSU) explained that online platforms such as Elon Musk's X had not provided any information about the perpetrator. She called for the $(LB4634759:Cross-procedural research and analysis platform) (VeRA) to be used temporarily until the establishment of the joint data infrastructure for police authorities called Police 2020 (P20) has been completed.

The further clarification of the events and omissions that did not prevent the Magdeburg crime is expected to take several weeks. So far, the authorities have not been able to compile a complete, chronological list of the perpetrator's numerous contacts with the authorities – Files on him were kept in different federal states and by different authorities. In parallel to the efforts at federal level, the state parliament in Saxony-Anhalt will also be dealing intensively with the events in the coming weeks.

(nie)