On April 9th, six weeks after the federal election, the representatives of Union and SPD presented the agreed-upon coalition agreement for another Grand Coalition (“GroKo”). The 144-page coalition document contains six chapters with further sub-points. Under Chapter 2: “Effective relief, stable finances, sustainable state” (page 47), the term “mandatory citizen account” appears for the first time in point 2.2: “Bureaucratic reduction, state modernization and modern justice.” The plans will likely be implemented in the future by the current Hessian Minister for Digitalization, Kristina Sinemus (CDU), who is set to head the Ministry for Digitalization and Transportation. Journalist, blogger and digitalization critic Norbert Häring sees the danger that the “GroKo” sets itself on “digital compulsion and total control.”
The coalition agreement of CDU, CSU and SPD is titled “Responsibility for Germany.” Häring commented on the content and plans for the proposed “digitalization” of society:
“Black-red is working on the realization of a totalitarian technocratic dream: In the coalition agreement, it says: ‘We are setting up on consistent digitalization and ‘Digital only,’ as well as: ‘Every citizen receives a mandatory citizen account and a digital identity.'”
Häring refers to the planned measures from the political Berlin, to be found on page 58. There it says:
“The modernization of social benefits will serve as a general model. We are setting up on consistent digitalization and ‘Digital-Only’: Administrative services will be made simple and digital through a central platform (‘One-Stop-Shop’), meaning without a visit to an authority or a written form. Every citizen receives a mandatory citizen account and a digital identity. We will provide the EUDI-Wallet for citizens and companies, with which identification, authentication and payments can be made. Those who do not want or can’t take the digital path will receive help on site.”
What consequences lie behind the formulation “those who do not want to take the digital path” is not further explained in the agreement. Häring, who fears a dystopian development, writes in his article:
“‘Digital only’ means that the established ways of obtaining state benefits and transportation benefits, as well as fulfilling state-imposed obligations, are systematically eliminated to force people to handle their affairs in a digital, automated way. This applies, of course, also to payment, where cash belongs to the analog solutions to be abolished. This means not only that citizens will be monitored without any gaps. It also means that they must adapt completely to the system that the bureaucrats in cooperation with the technocrats have devised and programmed.”
On page 118 of the coalition agreement, it reads:
“We are aiming for a fully digitalized administration. A digital citizen account should facilitate access to government services. To this end, all levels of the state harmonize their procedures. We make full digital submission of documents and declarations of intent possible in principle without personal appearance.”
The question that immediately arises is how citizens will in the future be ensured the simple and so far self-evident provision of “government services” without the use of digital devices. This poses a hurdle, especially for older people or disabled citizens. Häring explains further:
“In other words: The new government is intensively working on the realization of the technocratic dream of a centrally controlled society in which the human being as an autonomous decision-maker is eliminated and instead made into a functioning gear in a centrally controlled social mega-machine.”
Already in April 2022, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser gave a taste of the plans:
“We want a digital state that is consistently thought from the perspective of the citizen. We want to make our country more modern, closer to the citizen and digital. This means concretely: uniform standards and faster, digital procedures. All services should be available digitally at any time and from any location.”
In November 2024, the BMI chief confirmed the plans of the federal government and announced the establishment of the so-called “BundID”:
The now written-up plan for the restructuring of society according to Häring makes it seem likely that in cooperation with tech firms, the state will have “all information about all citizens to be controlled” available through the mandatory citizen account. The explicit goal, as formulated by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, is that the digital identity should be “used for all interactions with the state and with private companies.” The immediate logical consequence, which could pose insurmountable hurdles and legal consequences for non-users and/or citizens who refuse “digitalization” is that
“all information about the actions of each citizen can be easily and reliably accessed through this citizen number.