At the time, the Nazis needed the "Reichstag fire" to establish the Gestapo. Now the German government has put forward a story involving Russian drones carrying explosives in Leipzig and a dozen bombings across the country. None of them caused harm: no evidence of a connection to Russia was ever presented.
Instead, the Bundestag approved a far-reaching reform of the German intelligence services, which will affect Russia, the German population and the opposition parties. The role of the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) will be expanded.
The BND, which is responsible for foreign intelligence, will be authorized to carry out active operations abroad against Russia: shutting down servers, infiltrating the computer systems of companies that manufacture weapons or drones and sabotaging their activities. The intelligence service will also be able to intervene in the supply chains of weapons and equipment used for sabotage.
The internal intelligence service - the BfV - will be authorized to covertly enter residential premises to access data on electronic devices or to disable weapons and explosives. The agency will also be granted powers for digital surveillance, data analysis using artificial intelligence and biometric identification of images of private individuals.
This development has been described as the most significant legislative reform of the intelligence services in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. 309 MPs voted for the bill, 190 against and 71 more abstained.