Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann again calls on the Federal Foreign Office: Involve Länder in the National Security Strategy

Bavaria’s Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann has again called on the Federal Foreign Office to involve the Länder in the development of a National Security Strategy. “The Conference of Interior Ministers (IMK) already agreed at its last meeting in December that the development of a National Security Strategy without the participation of the Länder is not expedient. Therefore, we have called on the Federal Minister of the Interior in a resolution to ask the Foreign Office to involve the Länder.” As Herrmann notes in a recent letter from the current IMK chair, Berlin Senator of the Interior Iris Spranger, she notes “with great concern” that the IMK’s request has still not been heeded. Herrmann: “We demand a clear, structured participation of the Länder. Short-term inspections in the run-up to meetings cannot be a substitute for this. It cannot be that Ms Baerbock simply ignores the decision of the interior ministers.”

The police forces of the Länder as well as the fire and civil protection services of the municipalities and Länder ensure security in this country on a daily basis, said the Bavarian Interior Minister. “If the federal government has a serious interest in developing a forward-looking comprehensive security strategy, it must involve the Länder in an appropriate way, for example through the specialist working groups of the Conference of Interior Ministers.” So far, it is unclear which security aspects will ultimately be included in the National Security Strategy. The expertise of the Länder is also absolutely necessary in topics such as crisis prevention, civil protection, cyber security or when it comes to the connections between internal and external security. “Otherwise,” Herrmann said, “the envisaged National Security Strategy will remain a piecemeal effort and will not live up to its name.”