The Union’s parliamentary faction has cancelled several talks with the SPD and the Green factions on security laws, citing a lack of basis for discussions based on the proposals presented by the governing coalition.
According to an email sent by Alexander Throm, the Union’s parliamentary spokesperson, to Sebastian Hartmann, the SPD’s parliamentary spokesperson, the Union believes that the focus should be on passing a security package that truly deserves its name.
Earlier, Hartmann had invited the Union to discuss three proposals: the Bundestagspolizeigesetz, which aims to better protect the parliament from potential attacks; the Kritis-Dachgesetz, which aims to better protect critical infrastructure from attacks; and a law to improve counter-terrorism measures, which the governing coalition had already passed after the Solingen attack, but failed in the Bundesrat due to opposition from the Union-led states.
Throm stated that the only way forward for a security package is to have the government invoke the mediation committee, and it is only the government that has the legal authority to do so. He criticized the governing coalition for not having done so, despite repeated assurances from the Minister of the Interior and the SPD faction to expand the competencies of security authorities.
The Union believes that, in the context of a mediation procedure between the federal government and the states, the creation of necessary competencies and the improvement of the law are urgently required. The Union also accused the governing coalition of having watered down the original proposals in the parliamentary process, particularly in the areas of biometric data matching and automated data analysis, making them less effective.
The SPD faction, in turn, accused the Union of a blockade strategy, stating that the governing coalition is reliant on changing majorities in the parliament to pass important legislation and that the Union and the FDP are ignoring the current security situation, both domestically and internationally, and are instead prioritizing election campaign rhetoric and populist slogans. The SPD faction stated that they had repeatedly tried to engage in talks with both factions, but were met with a lack of willingness to compromise.