The Federal Government has drawn conclusions from the terrible massacre in Solingen and presented a comprehensive security package. This package represents the Federal Government’s appropriate response to the current threats posed by Islamist terror and anti-Semitism, as well as right and left-wing extremism. The measures will make it easier to carry out deportations and strengthen authorities in their fight against violent Islamism, as well as further tightening weapons legislation. On the whole, the measures are designed to improve the security situation in Germany. 

To this end, members of the Federal Government have presented two draft laws that were discussed in the Bundestag and Bundesrat on 18 October 2024. The draft law to improve domestic security and the asylum system is an objection law, and it entered into effect on 31 October 2024. The draft law for improving counter-terrorism measures is an approval law that was adopted by the Bundestag but rejected by the Bundesrat. 

Far-reaching measures for greater security

Federal Minister of the Interior Faeser believes that the German Bundestag took a very important step by adopting these draft laws. “Our security package strengthens domestic security in our country. It is the appropriate response to the current threats posed by Islamist terror and anti-Semitism, as well as right and left-wing extremism,” the Federal Minister of the Interior says.  

What exactly does that mean? 

Fighting irregular migration:

• In future, the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees will be allowed to use biometric data to determine the identity of asylum seekers.
• Asylum seekers for which another European state is responsible according to the Dublin Regulation are to receive no more social benefits in future if the member state in question has agreed to readmission and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees considers their departure to the state in charge to be “legally and actually possible”.
• Individuals travelling to their country of origin will lose their protected status unless such travel is “morally essential”. This rule does not apply for refugees from Ukraine.

Fighting Islamism:

• The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is to be granted greater powers to enable it to fight terrorist financing and control the flow of funds more effectively.

Stricter weapons law and ban on knives:

• The Federal Government will be introducing an absolute ban on knives at local festivals, sporting events, trade fairs, exhibitions, markets and other public events. Exceptions apply, for example, for delivery traffic and for owners and employees of eating and drinking establishments and their customers.
• Knives will also be banned on buses and trains in future.
• The federal states will be granted authorisation to impose bans on knives at railway stations.
• In addition, handling of dangerous flick knives will be banned. 

The draft law for improving counter-terrorism measures was adopted by the Bundestag but rejected by the Bundesrat. The particular goal of the draft law was to grant the powers necessary in this day and age to the Federal Criminal Police Office for performing tasks to combat the dangers of international terrorism, as well as to the federal police force, especially in relation to border protection. In addition, an explicit legal basis was to be created for all prosecution authorities that would allow for legally compliant matching of publicly available data from the internet with photographs and the voices of suspects and other wanted individuals.

Areas in which weapons are banned and general rules to prohibit the carrying of weapons and other dangerous items can only ever have an effect if these are actually enforced. To this end, new powers were to be introduced for the federal police force, allowing them to carry out checks on people on the premises of the federal railway service if carrying weapons or dangerous items is banned in such areas.

Further measures by the Federal Government 

On 9 September 2024, the Federal Ministry of the Interior announced temporary internal border controls on the national borders with France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark, for a duration of six months. 

Temporary internal border controls are already in place on Germany’s national borders with Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Poland. These are to be continued and periods are to be adjusted.