Key facts
- The Bundestag approved the intelligence law with 309 votes in favor, 190 against and 71 abstentions.
- BND agents will be able to conduct covert operations abroad, including sabotage, under the new law.
- The BfV will be able to dismantle explosives, block data flows during cyberattacks and delete or falsify data stored for malicious purposes.
- BfV agents may enter homes covertly with prior authorization and monitor encrypted telecommunications.
- Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt called the bill a reform of the century, citing threats from foreign powers.
- Left Party security spokeswoman Clara Bünger said the law creates a new German secret police.
Germany's Bundestag approved an overhaul of the country's intelligence legislation on November 13, 2026, with 309 MPs voting in favor, 190 against and 71 abstaining. The law expands the powers of the BND foreign intelligence service and the BfV domestic service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
For historical reasons, German intelligence has mainly focused on gathering information rather than acting on it. Under the new law, BND agents will be able to conduct covert operations abroad, including sabotage. The legislation says this could include paralysing the servers of state-sponsored hacker groups, disrupting disinformation networks, or disrupting supply chains for weapons.
BfV agents will no longer be limited to gathering information. For the first time they will be able to take protective action against property and IT systems when specific threats are identified, including dismantling or breaking explosives or weapons, diverting or blocking data flows during cyberattacks, deleting or falsifying data stored for malicious purposes, and planting false information on those involved. Under certain conditions, and with prior authorization, BfV agents will be permitted to enter homes covertly. They will also gain wider digital surveillance powers, including monitoring encrypted telecommunications, online searches, AI-supported data analysis and biometric image matching on the internet.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, who championed the bill, called it a "reform of the century" and said the government needed it because of an increase in foreign espionage, particularly from Russia, China and Iran. "We are the target of hybrid threats," Dobrindt said. "Germany is a theatre of operations for terrorism, extremism and foreign powers."
The government pointed to an August incident in which a drone carrying an explosive device was discovered at Leipzig Airport, close to Ukrainian cargo planes. It failed to explode because the bomb's detonator was apparently faulty, and German authorities said Russia was behind the attack.
The law drew criticism from opposition politicians. Clara Bünger, the Left Party's security spokeswoman, told public broadcaster ARD the law was "a monster" and said the separation between police and the secret service was "being eroded", a lesson she said was learned from the Nazi era. Dobrindt has said it is "madness" to think the law means Germany is creating a new secret police. Sonja Eichwede of the centre-left SPD, part of Germany's governing coalition, said the reforms would make a significant contribution to ensuring the country's democracy was "robust and resilient".