Stephan Kramer, president of the Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, has sharply rejected calls for expanded powers for the domestic intelligence service.
Kramer responded to proposals by Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution president Sinan Selen and Federal Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt. He stressed that the agency should remain an intelligence service and not receive executive powers.
“The repeated demand to transform and expand the Office for the Protection of the Constitution into a real secret service increasingly irritates me and worries me,” Kramer told the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland. He warned against mixing tasks with the police and a possible loss of public trust.
Kramer acknowledged the need for reforms in cyber defense but rejected active countermeasures by the agency. Dobrindt had announced a reform in early May to turn the services into a real secret service.