Konstantin von Notz, an expert on internal affairs and deputy chair of the Green Party’s parliamentary group, hopes for a factual and security-political debate after the Magdeburg attack.
“No one will stop the AfD from reacting to this situation with racist madness and demanding the expulsion of foreign doctors or similar, but I believe it’s still possible to have a factual discussion about our security policy and urgently needed improvements in the election campaign” said von Notz to the Funke Media Group’s newspapers. “There’s a lot to discuss. People are not dumb, they know that there’s no 100% security, but they want the security authorities to function correctly.”
The politician was reminded of the Breitscheidplatz attack by the Magdeburg attack: “It seems to be a bit like back then, when the perpetrator was known, there were hints of the threat he posed, but nothing was done.” He considers a problem might be the federal structure of the authorities. “If the responsible public prosecutor in Magdeburg had never heard of the man’s previous procedures in other federal states on the day after the crime, then we clearly have a problem with sharing and combining information.” It can’t be that a perpetrator benefits from spreading his activities across multiple federal states.
He also rejected demands for the introduction of a data retention law as a reaction to the attack. “The authorities didn’t even read the public tweets of this man” said von Notz. “We don’t have a problem with options for searching, we have a problem with taking action.”
Similar statements were made by Green Party leader Franziska Brantner: “It’s becoming clear that there was no problem of the authorities recognizing the suspected perpetrator, but rather a problem of implementing the measures” she said to the Funke newspapers. “Now, we need to clarify how the information available at the state and federal levels was handled. We’ve been seeing a need for action regarding the powers of the intelligence services and changing the laws to ensure a better information exchange for a long time.