New Police Law 'Not Enough to Solve Migration Problem in Germany' - Politician

The police in the German state of Bavaria will now have the power to investigate people deemed as an imminent danger. The new police law has been dubbed controversial by critics, who claim as it could become a draft for expanded police powers across Germany. Sputnik discussed this with German MP Martin Sichert, chairman of the AfD party in Bavaria.

Sputnik: What is your take on the new law?

Martin Sichert: We have the take of the law that it's just working at the symptoms of the problems that we have in Germany, and that it's not a real way to solve the causes of these problems like the possibility of open borders with illegal immigration for terrorists [who are able to] to come into Germany.

READ MORE: 'Massive Attack on Democracy': 30,000 Germans Protest CSU Police Bill in Munich

Sputnik: The CSU has argued that this is a security law not a surveillance law, would you agree with that?

Martin Sichert: Security and surveillance are always combined with each other and it's something to improve, but it's also part of surveillance and there will be a lot of work for the courts because words like "imminent danger," which are not very precisely formed and where the courts will have to define what is imminent danger and what is not imminent danger.

Sputnik: In your view how justified are the concerns? Is it likely that any negative consequences will come from this or is it just fear-mongering between Germans?

Martin Sichert: There are some concerns and they must be taken seriously. We have, for example, in this law parts where there are words like: "The necessary measures for danger defense can, in the individual case, depend on the individual behavior of a person from which comes a concrete possibility of problematic behavior" — and that's not very specifically founded, and so many people are in fear that this law might be used not only against potential terrorists, but also in a further way for political opponents in some ways. We must have a very good look at how this law, that has been passed now, will work in a practical way and how the courts will decide what is such behavior that poses such a concrete possibility or which behavior is still not a problem, and what we have is a big, big problem in this law is that people can be taken into prison for just having the fear of an imminent danger of this person and without having a decision by a court and only one judge can decide to send someone into jail for as long as necessary, even for years, and that's something that's very critically seen.

READ MORE: Germany’s Bavaria Expands Police Authority Amid Increase in Terror-Related Cases

Sputnik: Why is this law being initiated just in Bavaria?

Martin Sichert: In Bavaria we have elections in October and the CSU fears especially the AfD party and we're talking about lots of problems that we have now with the immigrants, especially from the last two years, and there's a big debate in Bavaria and in other parts of Germany too, but especially in Bavaria because all of the illegal immigrants that came to Germany came over the borders of Austria into Bavaria and [were] then put into different cities in Germany, but they all went through Bavaria, so in Bavaria there's this discussion about what kind of people are coming here, and do we want these people here, and there have been terrorists coming in to Germany from Al Qaeda and Taliban and we cannot send them back because Taliban in Afghanistan has threatened them with the death penalty so we can't send them back to Afghanistan, so what do we do with these people in Germany. So this debate is going on and the CSU fears the upcoming elections in October and so they want to show that they take action and fight against terrorism, but from our point of view that's not really fighting against the causes, like the mass immigration of illegal immigrants coming into Germany is still possible, and that's not a law that doesn't anything against this, and it's just working above the symptoms by letting these terrorists into Germany because we don't not want to face Angela Merkel and her politics, and so we try to get these terrorists that have come into the country to reduce the threat that they bring to us, and therefore they sacrifice freedom rights of the people.

READ MORE: 'Islam Doesn't Belong to Germany' Remark Sparks Debate Over Migrant Crisis in EU

Sputnik: Every state in Germany has their own police force and their own police regulation, do you think this is going to be rolled out across all German states then eventually?

Martin Sichert: I think that it is, and we see from other states already, that some are saying yes, it's interesting, let's take a closer look, and maybe we can take this, but I don't think that this will spread over all parts of Germany because we see that many, especially, in the north and in the east of Germany say that this is just a thing that the CSU made to calm the people down for the upcoming elections, to show that they take action, and we see mass demonstrations against this law.

Views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the speaker and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.