Hoffmann urges Germany to resist fear of hybrid threats

Germany must respond more effectively to hybrid threats without allowing fear to dictate its actions, Alexander Hoffmann, chair of the CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, told BR’s television programme Münchner Runde on Thursday evening.

The threats include drones over airports, cyberattacks on sensitive infrastructure, online disinformation and sabotage targeting power networks. Such attacks are designed to hit state structures, unsettle society and put democratic institutions under pressure.

“Putin wants us to be afraid of him,” Hoffmann said, warning that the Russian president wanted to destabilise Germany and Europe through sabotage and hybrid influence operations. “The bear is becoming increasingly dangerous,” he said, describing Russia as an increasingly aggressive threat.

Germany must not allow fear to guide its response, Hoffmann said. “We must not fall into this trap.” Instead, the country had to learn to deal more effectively with new forms of hybrid threat. “We have entered a new era,” he said.

Ulrich Thoden, defence policy spokesman for the parliamentary group of The Left, said there was “of course” a threat situation, but warned against acting “headlessly”. People should not be intimidated either by rearmament or by hybrid threats, he said.

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Security and Defence, also stressed the importance of public information. The population needed to be fully informed and threats placed in context. “Fear paralyses, knowledge helps,” she said.

The situation was undoubtedly serious, Strack-Zimmermann said. It was therefore important to explain the connections clearly and provide knowledge about new forms of threat. This required technological expertise and close cooperation between European countries, she said.

Hybrid attacks target more than critical infrastructure. They also increasingly unsettle society, weakening trust in state institutions and in shared facts.

The effects were clearly being felt, journalist Gesine Dornblüth said. She pointed to a situation in which people no longer believed facts, accepted that there were no longer any truths, or trusted institutions, police or investigators.

The participants disagreed on whether Germany was sufficiently prepared for hybrid dangers and their social consequences. Hoffmann pointed to measures the federal government had already initiated to counter such threats, saying Germany was moving at “record speed”.

He cited the Centre for Drone Defence, the Centre for Combating Hybrid Threats, the retention of IP addresses to combat terrorism in the digital sphere, expanded digital investigative powers and a reorientation of the intelligence services.

Thoden rejected that assessment. “I find what has been done so far frighteningly little,” he said. He also said the newly established drone defence centre did not yet have sufficient practical capability to counter the threat.

Germany has been discussing the dangers posed by drones for years. In 2018, for example, London’s Gatwick Airport was temporarily paralysed after drones were sighted.