As European countries like France raised terror alert levels after the attack on Moscow, Germany’s interior minister said border security will be bolstered ahead of this summer’s European Football Championship.
Germany will introduce temporary controls at all German borders for the European Football Championship this summer, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told the Rheinische Post newspaper on Tuesday.
The measures come in the wake of the terror attack in Moscow on Friday.
“We will carry out temporary border controls at all German borders during the tournament in order to prevent possible perpetrators of violence from entering the country,” Faeser told the newspaper.
“This is necessary to provide the best possible protection for this major international event,” added the minister.
Faeser said border control would focus on the threat of Islamist terrorism. extremists, hooligans and other violent criminals. Measures also included network security against cyberattacks.
A spokesperson for the Interior Ministry on Monday said that German security authorities have not made any changes after the attack in Moscow to their security assessment of the terrorism threat to Germany, and the threat assessment is ongoing.
Faeser explained that the threat of Islamist terror was already high before the current attack and remains so now.
However, Germany does not issue terror alert levels like other countries do.
Why doesn’t Germany have terror alert levels?
France and Italy raised their terror alert levels in response to the attack. The security level in France is now at its highest level.
President Emmanuel Macron said the branch of the so-called Islamic State dubbed “ISIS-K,” which claimed the Moscow attack, also “tried to commit several actions” on French soil.
However, Germany says blanket terror alert levels are too general, and do not specify an exact location where a threat is imminent.
“The situation can vary from region to region, and even within a single city,” the Interior Ministry says on its website.
This can lead to “the inaccurate feeling that the danger is the same everywhere.” The Ministry also warned that alert levels can “unnecessarily increase the feeling of insecurity.”
Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office “periodically prepares risk assessments on the terrorist threat situation on a case-by-case basis,” said an Interior Ministry spokesperson.
If the risk increases in Germany, “appropriate security measures will be implemented immediately.”
Border controls in Germany during 2006 World Cup
Germany already temporarily introduced border controls as host of the FIFA World Cup in 2006
The European Football Championship starts on June 14, with matches around Germany until July 14.
German police union chairman Alexander Poitz told the Rheinische Post that security authorities are well equipped for the event.
In regard to the current threat situation, the German conservative and right-leaning party CDU/CSU is calling for more power for the police and intelligence services in Germany.
Thorsten Frei, Parliamentary Director of CDU, told Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper on Tuesday that German security authorities need similar investigative tools as foreign intelligence services, including online searches or the evaluation of video surveillance with the help of facial recognition and artificial intelligence.
Source: Dw
