Parliamentary control of the three German secret services is always a hot topic.
The activities of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the Federal Intelligence Service and the Military Counterintelligence Service should be hidden and effective, but of course also bound by the rule of law.
If too much leaks out, the security of individuals and the country can be jeopardized.
Even the small circle of controlling deputies has never been completely immune to leaking something.
It is an additional challenge when MPs whose party has (partly) itself been the subject of secret service surveillance are entrusted with the control of those same services.
As expected, neither an AfD parliamentarian nor one of the leftists, who are now considered domesticated, have been elected to the control committee.
The Union is now the only opposition there, and the traffic light parties even have a two-thirds majority, giving them additional opportunities.
Now is also the result of a democratic election - the majorities in the plenary session of the Bundestag do not have to be mirrored in the control body.
But the traffic light now has a majority here that it does not otherwise have.
Another turning point?
In any case, a reason to take a closer look – if you can see something.