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Chancellor Merkel, Minister Seehofer and Scholz (archive photo)
Photo: JOHN MACDOUGALL / AFP
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU), according to SPIEGEL information, accommodates the SPD when calling for a study on racism in the police.
So far, Seehofer had rejected such an investigation.
At a meeting between Seehofer and Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in the Chancellery on Monday there was now an approximation of the question.
Accordingly, there should be no explicit investigation into racism in the police.
Rather, the study should be broader and, according to SPIEGEL information, deal with the everyday experiences of officials.
In addition to the experience of hatred and violence against police officers, it should also be examined whether the officers always live up to the claim that there is no tolerance for extremism, racism and anti-Semitism in the public service.
How exactly the project will be implemented is still unclear.
Part of the study is intended to analyze the relationship between society and the police in more detail, such as changed social framework conditions.
The compromise is based on a proposal by the Police Union (GdP).
She recently advocated an "investigation into everyday police life" in order to document burdens. It should also find out why individual officers sometimes have "prejudices against certain social groups" and what can be done about it.
At the meeting at the Chancellery, there were also compromises on several other contentious issues.
Merkel, Seehofer and Scholz agreed that the federal secret services would be given more surveillance powers.
In the future, all three services should be able to play suspicious Trojans on mobile phones in order to record messages and calls via apps like WhatsApp.
The coalition had been arguing about this for months.
In return, the SPD receives a whole series of concessions from the Union.
For example, there should be a racism commissioner for the federal government in the future.
In addition, initiatives against extremism should be better financed and children's rights anchored in the Basic Law.
In addition to the study on the everyday experiences of the police, there should also be a broader study on everyday racism.
According to SPIEGEL information, the agreement is to "research the development and dissemination of discriminatory acts in civil society, in business and companies as well as public institutions that are motivated by racist attitudes".
This is followed by regular monitoring in order to collect the relevant data for Germany.
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