Protection of the Constitution in the pillory: Saxony’s deputy state chief illegally spied on


Protection of the Constitution in the pillory
Saxony’s deputy head of state illegally spied on

Several Saxon parliamentarians have been spied on by the state’s protection of the constitution – without a legal basis. Vice Prime Minister Dulig is also among the victims of the data affair. The authority admits errors.

The Saxon Office for the Protection of the Constitution has illegally collected information about politicians – including Vice Prime Minister and SPD leader Martin Dulig. According to a report by the Parliamentary Control Commission (PKK) responsible for the supervision of the secret service, the secret service saved, among other things, statements by Dulig on how the Saxon CDU dealt with right-wing extremism. Statements by MPs from the Greens and the Left were also documented. The parties ruled indignantly. The Protection of the Constitution itself admitted errors. A reconstruction of the way in which the information reached the Office for the Protection of the Constitution or the reasons for which it was collected is not possible for the Commission, the report says. But the balance sheet is unmistakably clear: “Your storage is clearly unlawful in any case.”

Dulig expressed himself horrified. “I feel criminalized,” said the SPD politician. “For me it is an outrageous process that data is collected about me as a democrat.” The SPD politician told the “Tagesspiegel” that he had made a request for information and received six pages of information – for example about participation in demonstrations and Facebook posts. “It is a monstrous process. I have no words for it,” he said. He classified the information as mostly unimportant and “rather embarrassing for the agents”.

According to “Spiegel”, among other things, the protection of the constitution has saved a critical statement by Dulig on how the CDU coalition partner dealt with right-wing extremism. As part of a study by the Göttingen Institute for Democracy Research, the SPD politician declared that the Christian Democrats are also responsible for the current situation in Saxony with regard to right-wing extremism. The CDU played down and relativized the problem for 25 years.

In addition, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is said to have evaluated Dulig’s activities on social networks. A Facebook posting from October 2018 is named as evidence in the PKK report, writes the “Spiegel”.

Green politician: That must not happen

His colleague Wolfram Günther, Environment Minister and also Vice Prime Minister, reacted indignantly: The illegal data collection was another scandal in a history of the Saxon constitutional protection rich in scandals, tweeted the Green politician. “That must not happen in a democratic constitutional state!”

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution stated that the review by the Parliamentary Control Commission had shown “that for many years information that was publicly available about all members of the Saxon state parliament, without any relevance to the intelligence service, as well as their personal data, had been stored”. The secret service also provided an explanation for the collection. It has to do with electronic data processing: All written material is automatically recorded upon receipt. Only later will it be checked whether the information has any relevance to the work of the secret service at all. This review “did not take place on time until mid-2020,” it said.

If the way of working was correct, the parliamentary data would “have to be deleted immediately with the incoming mail, because they have no added intelligence at all and are not necessary for the LfV to perform its duties,” according to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

In addition to statements by Dulig, statements by the Left MP Rico Gebhardt were also recorded, according to the PKK report. Gebhardt had accused Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer of having acted as the “announcement organ of the military”. The left then spoke of “serious problems with the Saxon domestic secret service2. State chief Stefan Hartmann declared:” The constitution would be better protected by abolishing the secret service than by continuing the authority. “

Interior Minister: Replacement of the head of the authorities was the right thing to do

In the summer of last year, a data protection affair had caused a sensation at the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. At that time it was about the controversial storage of the data of AfD members. The Parliamentary Control Commission also reviewed this case. She came to the conclusion that the data could be collected – but should have been deleted again later.

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution has had a new boss in Dirk-Martin Christian since last year. He had replaced the controversial President Gordian Meyer-Plath, from whose time the practice of collecting parliamentary data originated. Christian now stated that he had meanwhile taken a number of legal and organizational measures “which will ensure a legally secure approach in the future”.

For Saxony’s interior minister, the PKK’s report shows that “the immediate reappraisal and replacement” of the then president was logical and necessary. The CDU politician referred to the importance of the free mandate in a democracy. “The fight against extremism and enemies of democracy must be conducted on the basis of law and order.”

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