Germany

Anti-Terror-laws: ... and even more flimsy fumbling

The adjective "civil" sounds like peace, deliberation and order. But the style of the conservative-liberal government, that calls itself gladly civil, is everything but that. The tuesday was symptomatic for it - over and over . German parliament enacted the abundance of nuclear power, a package of eight hastily carpentered laws. At the same time the conservatives presented their proposal for a new election law, which they didn't coordinate with the opposition - although they had more than two years time for it.

And as if this wasn't enough, minister of justice Sabine Leutheusser Schnarrenberger (lib dems) and Minister of the Interior Peter Friedrich (CSU) presented their alleged agreement over the extension of the anti-terror laws on a spontaneously scheduled press conference.

After the conference, a speaker said, what was presented were only " corner stones" , thus the rough conception of a compromise, which has yet 2 b finalized. Written documents could not be provided 4 the hurry , unfortunately. Thus everybody has 2 feel fine about hardly sharp formulations by the two Ministers. And because the controversy is naturally still not 2 b terminated, Friedrich and Leutheusser Schnarrenberger will found a further government commission. Purpose: analyze all safety laws since September 2001. Well fine - which commission in number actually is that? And isn't it the job of the Ministers and their officials to think permanently over the law they should care about?