Bavaria’s new police powers ‘hark back to the Gestapo’

Strict new policing laws in Bavaria have been called the most intrusive since the Nazi era as the state’s leadership tries to win back voters from the far right.

Police capabilities are a state responsibility in Germany and changes in Bavaria mean officers will be able to tap phones, open post and make “preventative arrests” on the ground of “impending danger”. The term, which replaced “concrete danger”, came from a German constitutional court ruling that gave police new powers to combat terrorism, but Bavaria has applied it to the broader category of “serious offences”…

The Christian Social Union, sister party of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, is trying to neutralise Alternative for Germany, which took 12.4 per cent of the Bavarian vote in September’s general election. Last week, 30,000 people protested in Munich against the changes.

A group of Bayern Munich fans wrote on their website: “This is the abolition of separation between police and intelligence services, an important principle in the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, based on its experience with the Gestapo.”