Following Chancellor Friedrich Merz's controversial remark on the cityscape, CDU politician Alexander Throm demands the use of video surveillance with facial recognition to make cities safer. The SPD reacts with shock and warns against exploiting the debate. The proposal faces criticism over privacy concerns.
The debate over Germany's cityscape is intensifying. Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated on October 14 in Potsdam that the federal government is correcting past failures in migration policy and deporting more people, "but we naturally still have this problem in the cityscape." He later added: "Ask your daughters what I might have meant by that." On Wednesday, Merz specified that issues stem from migrants without permanent residency status who do not work and fail to follow German rules.
Building on this, Alexander Throm, the Union faction's interior policy spokesman, demanded in Handelsblatt the deployment of video surveillance "with automated data extraction," meaning facial recognition. He argued it is "necessary in many places to better prevent and solve crimes." Outside train stations, the federal states are responsible. Throm urged privacy advocates to abandon their "outdated concerns" about AI-supported technology.
The SPD faction responded sharply. Interior spokesman Sebastian Fiedler told Handelsblatt: "The cityscape debate is being perfidiously crowned once more if it is now linked to hunting terrorists." He stressed that EU law permits facial recognition software only for counter-terrorism. The debate highlights tensions in the coalition over security and privacy.