Munich - The Bavarian State Parliament - better: CSU and Free Voters - passed the new Bavarian Police Task Act (PAG) last week without much public response.
The critics' last hope is now through legal action.
Despite much resistance, the law continues to contain the term “imminent danger”, in which the police are empowered to intervene as a preventive measure.
According to the law, the police may intervene in order to “prevent the creation of a threat to an important legal asset”, as stated in Article 11a.
Potential property crimes are excluded.
Critics such as the SPD legal expert in the state parliament, Horst Arnold, still consider the defined intervention thresholds to be too low.
He warns, Arnold told our newspaper, that the Bavarian state police are allowed to do more "than the Federal Criminal Police Office in the fight against terrorism".
Seven proceedings before the Bavarian Constitutional Court
The last option to unhinge the PAG is now to take legal action, which, however, has no suspensive effect. This means that the law will initially apply from August 1st - until it is eventually stopped by a court. However, there are some efforts to achieve this, a veritable avalanche of lawsuits is rolling towards constitutional officials in the federal and state levels. Seven proceedings are pending before the Bavarian Constitutional Court, as a spokeswoman confirmed. There are four popular lawsuits against the PAG, and three so-called differences of opinion were submitted by the state parliament opposition. The SPD and the Greens have registered fundamental concerns about the law in the state parliament and communicated this to the court - therefore the Constitutional Court has to review the PAG.One level higher are three proceedings before the Federal Constitutional Court. The SPD MP Arnold and other MPs filed a constitutional complaint against an earlier version of the Police Act in 2019 and continues to uphold it because of - in his view - serious encroachments on fundamental rights. The “No PAG” alliance is also suing in Karlsruhe. In addition, the FDP, the Greens and the Left in the Bundestag initiated a norm review procedure as early as 2018.In addition, the Greens and the Left in the Bundestag initiated a norm review procedure as early as 2018.In addition, the Greens and the Left in the Bundestag initiated a norm review procedure as early as 2018.
All of these complaints have not yet been decided. The criminal lawyer at the Munich University, Mark Zöller, criticizes the fact that the law will now come into force as a violation of "the principle of courtesy and respect towards the courts". In the "Bayerische Staatszeitung", Zöller presented the Ministry of the Interior and the police leadership with a "game with the fear of the citizens" - something that State Police President Wilhelm Schmidbauer sharply rejected.