Knife pens, brass knuckles: Kloeckner wants tighter security at the Bundestag
The Bundestag president says parliament faces growing outside threats, with officers regularly finding dangerous items at entry checks. She rejects private security teams brought in by parliamentary groups.
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Bundestag President Julia Kloeckner of the Christian Democrats says Germany's parliament is increasingly exposed to outside threats and wants to strengthen security. She told Stern magazine that officers at entry checks regularly find dangerous items, such as pens with built-in knives, a spray can with an attached stun device and handbags holding brass knuckles. Anyone who fails the background check is turned away.
"The Bundestag has 200 police officers of its own, and they are necessary," she said. A balance must be struck between an open house and the necessary vigilance, she added, saying parliaments and democracies must be able to defend themselves.
Kloeckner also stressed that the Bundestag police hold the monopoly on the use of force inside parliament. Private security services brought in by individual parliamentary groups have no place in the Bundestag, she said, according to the German news agency dpa.