BERLIN, May 9 (UPI) -- Time is running out to make constitutional changes for the German military to be deployed domestically for World Cup security, a move that has the grand coalition government in disagreement.
Berlin lawmakers failed Monday to agree on domestic deployment of the Bundeswehr, Germany's armed forces, during the FIFA Soccer World Cup which starts June 9. At present, the Bundeswehr cannot be deployed domestically.
Written in 1949, the German constitution established a strict separation between police and military, because the Nazis had blurred that separation, leading to political oppression by the military and a ruthless police state. Today, the police are responsible for the country's internal security, and the army protects Germany outside its borders.
Lawmakers from Chancellor Angela Merkel's center-right Christian Democrat Union, or CDU, have in the past called for the law to be rewritten in light of Germany's spotless democratic record since World War II. Doing that would require a two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament.
Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, of the CDU, in past months has repeatedly lobbied for such a measure to allow Germany's soldiers to boost security for the month-long soccer tournament that will draw millions of people from all over the world.
"I don't want to put tanks in front of the stadiums," Schaeuble said recently, "but the Bundeswehr could protect other objects, like embassies."
Security concerns are mounting, with an increasing number of terror attacks all over the world, including Europe. Conservatives argue that the new, post-Sept. 11 reality calls for a modernization of Germany's nearly six-decade old law.
"Because of terrorism, it has to be possible that the Bundeswehr can be deployed for object security, to fend off NBC weapons attacks and for support measures; that can mean sea defense, for example," Brandenburg's Interior Minister Joerg Schoenbohm, of Merkel's conservatives, Tuesday told German news channel n-tv.
Germany is eager to prove it has overcome one of the darkest chapters in sports history, after eight Palestinian terrorists kidnapped 11 Israeli athletes during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.
At the time, Germany was trying to forget its Nazi past. Roughly 2,100 police officers providing security in the Olympic village were unarmed, wearing baby blue safari suits and handing out flowers to aggressive rowdies, a dream-come-true for any terrorist group. The kidnappings ended fatally.
As a consequence of the crisis, Germany created a special police unit capable of dealing with terrorist attacks, the GSG9, today an internationally respected unit.
Lawmakers from the other party in government, the center-left Social Democrats, are strictly against changing the constitution, as they argue the police are able to deal with such attacks.
Germany's three opposition parties, the Free Democrats, the Green Party, and the far-left Left Party also oppose the move, and have warned of a "militarization" of the country's internal security.
"We don't want to help create a situation where the military has too much influence," Oskar Lafontaine, the head of the Left Party's parliamentary faction, Tuesday told n-tv.
Some 7,000 soldiers will be on hand during the World Cup, but they are only supposed to provide medical, transport and logistical support, and serve as specialists for dealing with nuclear, chemical or biological attacks.
Moreover, four NATO reconnaissance planes will cruise the sky, spotting potential terror attacks during World Cup. The planes are equipped with the Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS, a radar-based system designed to carry out airborne surveillance and communication for both tactical and air defense forces. Modern AWACS systems can detect aircraft from hundreds of miles away, well out of range of regular anti-air weapons. The planes were also deployed during the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Even if lawmakers did agree to change the constitution, there will not be time to implement the new law, given that the World Cup kicks off in less than a month, said association spokesman Wilfried Stolze.
"Our soldiers are not trained for taking over police jobs, and there won't be time for such training," Stolze Tuesday told United Press International. "Bundeswehr soldiers shouldn't be used as cheap police aids."
He added that Bundeswehr troops are already over-worked, and that the 7,000 soldiers assisting in the World Cup are more than enough.
"Mr. Schaeuble is attempting the constitutional change for several years now," he said. "But I have the feeling that on the day after the World Cup, this topic will disappear."
