The Union faction in the Bundestag is calling for a tightening of laws to improve the protection of individuals involved in legal proceedings and to enhance the monitoring of suspects. According to CSU Member of Parliament Susanne Hierl, spokesperson for legal affairs for the Union faction, “Those who testify or make decisions in criminal proceedings deserve the best possible protection, especially in the environment of organized crime”. The Union has indicated a willingness to introduce a corresponding draft law in the parliament.
The proposal originates from the state of Berlin, initially presented as a Bundesrat initiative last year. The draft aimed to classify threats and intimidation attempts against witnesses, judges and other individuals involved in legal proceedings as a particularly serious case of coercion. It also suggested granting investigators the authority to collect telecommunications and location data from suspects in such instances. While the proposal progressed through committees, it was withdrawn before a vote in the Bundesrat plenum due to a lack of majority support, particularly facing resistance from states with Green party participation in government.
The Union faction intends to revive the Berlin proposal within the Bundestag. However, approval from the coalition partner, the SPD, remains uncertain. SPD spokesperson for legal affairs, Carmen Wegge, stated that “An expansion of surveillance measures such as telecommunications monitoring or traffic data queries is not tenable from our perspective”. She argued that resources should be prioritized for better equipping the judiciary and strengthening witness protection programs, instead of increasing surveillance.
The Green party has also voiced opposition to the proposal, characterizing it as “pure law-and-order symbolic politics”. A Green party spokesperson added that the CDU has not provided sufficient evidence to support claims of a rise in such incidents and that existing regulations are adequate for addressing threats.
Data regarding the prevalence of these threats remains difficult to quantify on a nationwide basis. While a nationwide statistic is absent, various states report varying experiences. For example, Lower Saxony recorded 156 insults, 54 threats and 9 acts of violence against judicial staff in 2024. Baden-Württemberg registered 195 security-related occurrences. Hesse, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia have reported increasing intimidation within the judiciary, while Rhineland-Palatinate cites low case numbers and North Rhine-Westphalia has only been collecting such data since April 2024.
The state of Bavaria explicitly supports the Berlin initiative, highlighting a significant increase in reported incidents. Between July 2022 and June 2023, 541 acts of violence were recorded within the judicial sector, compared to 304 cases in 2020.
The prospect of a new legislative initiative in the Bundestag remains unclear. CSU politician Hierl stated, “We are open to working with the coalition partner to incorporate the Berlin proposals into a separate legislative initiative”. Notably, the support of the states would not be required for such a move.
