German spies handed new powers to tackle 'hybrid threats' from abroad

Germany's foreign and domestic intelligence services are to be given greater powers to combat espionage, terrorism and sabotage after the country's parliament, the Bundestag, approved a major overhaul of its legislation. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt, who championed the bill, has called it a "reform of the century", necessary because of the increasing threats from foreign powers.

The legislation gives numerous new powers to Germany's BND federal intelligence service, and its BfV domestic service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. In the Bundestag, 309 MPs voted in favour of the new law on intelligence services, while 190 voted against and 71 abstained.

In future, German spies working for the BND, which is responsible for foreign intelligence, will be able to conduct covert operations abroad, including sabotage. This could include paralysing the servers of state-sponsored hacker groups, disrupting disinformation networks, or even disrupting supply chains for weapons.