Thomas de Maiziere is expected to call for swifter deportation of criminals and greater use of video surveillance.
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These additional measures include imposing a burqa ban, scrapping the possibility of dual nationalities and boosting the presence of police in trains, as well as at train stations and airports. In addition, spending on security would be raised by €2.0 billion (US$2.2 billion) by 2020.
“I propose that German citizens who fight for terror groups in other countries and take part in combat operations, if they have a second nationality, and only then, should lose their German citizenship”, Mr de Maiziere said. The authorities will also be able to detain those under a deportation order until they can be removed from the country.
“My proposals are limited to the points that can lead to more security rapidly”, de Maiziere said.
In a separate report, The Telegraph noted that the most controversial proposals are the calls for a ban on the full-face veil in public and an end to dual citizenship.
Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party has been discussing whether to add a burka ban to the new measures.
Frank Tempel, of leftwing party Die Linke who is a deputy chair of the federal committee for internal affairs, said in particular the proposal to ban the burqa was “pandering to the pub room chatter of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland”.
The proposals call for hiring more federal police officers; making it a crime to express sympathy for terrorism; greater sharing of intelligence data across Europe; a closer watch on the web; and making it easier to deport foreigners deemed to be risky.
One measure coming under fire is an effort to allow doctors constrained by confidentiality laws to report potentially risky patients to the authorities. Six days later, in Germany’s first Islamist suicide attack, a 27-year-old Syrian blew himself up outside a music festival in Ansbach and wounded 15.
The new laws will also change some long-standing policies, such as respecting doctor-patient confidentiality.
“The tense domestic security situation must not tempt us into rash political and legal measures”.
During an annual news conference held in the wake of the attacks, Merkel vowed to do “everything humanly possible” to ensure security in Germany.
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The daily Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper cited coalition sources as saying de Maiziere wanted the package of new measures adopted before the next federal election, due in autumn 2017.
