Germany’s parliament approved sweeping new powers on Friday, allowing the country’s intelligence agencies to hack and disrupt adversaries under specified conditions to counter foreign espionage and cyberattacks.
The Bundestag passed the legislation by 308 votes to 190, with 71 abstentions, as reported by the German parliamentary archive. The governing Christian Democrats and Social Democrats backed the reform, while the far-right Alternative for Germany and Die Linke opposed it.
The changes expand the role of the foreign intelligence agency, the Bundesnachrichtendienst, and the domestic intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, beyond gathering information to actively disrupting threats. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt described the legislation as a reform of the century, arguing that Germany needed stronger services to confront terrorism and hostile foreign operations.
“The reform is a direct result of the Zeitenwende and closely tied to Germany’s foreign policy challenges since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022,” Florian Bigge, programme director at think tank Korber-Stiftung, told Al Jazeera.
“The security reality has changed fundamentally in recent years,” Florian Bigge, programme director at think tank Korber-Stiftung, told Al Jazeera, noting that the foreign intelligence agency had publicly sought expanded powers since 2024. He added that the approval arrived amid an increasingly uncertain international order driven by sabotage, cyberattacks, drones, and fear of United States unpredictability.
Under the new framework, the domestic service can take technical measures against serious threats, such as deleting stolen information from an attacker’s server. For the foreign agency, the powers allow interventions abroad, including disrupting servers used by state-backed hackers.
The approval follows an incident in August when German authorities found an explosive-laden drone near an Antonov Airlines cargo plane at Leipzig-Halle airport, linking it to Moscow.
Berlin formally accused Russia of attempting an attack at the state-owned facility, prompting the closure of the Russian Consulate General in Bonn and the Russian House in Berlin. Moscow responded by ordering the closure of a German consulate in St Petersburg and the Goethe-Institut.
Opposition lawmakers, particularly Die Linke, expressed concern over privacy and the historic separation between intelligence gathering and police work. The party argued that key provisions failed to meet constitutional standards and warned of creating a secret police force similar to the East German Stasi.
The main provisions are scheduled to take effect on December 31, pending completion of the legislative process.
