The SPD has rolled over for the CDU in the past on things, but they've also blocked things they thought were important enough to block, so it's really anyone's guess if this go through (I personally wouldn't bet on it, but I'm sure a bunch of dour pessimists will come explain to me that it's a foregone conclusion and I'm naive).

The previous president was burning tens of million of Euros on renting private jets on the taxpayer's dime for trips that weren't related to his duties, and when reporters wanted to investigate this misuse, the government came forward and called the president's travel history (and expenses) a national security topic and remove it from the freedom of information.

Isn't it convenient how you can just cover corruption under the rug by invoking national security? I'm surprised it hasn't been used more often.

Should a random US citizen be able to ask a random Germany government official for data? Why?

Industry and trade associations aren't happy either, which raises the question who asks for this? Life is getting forcefully precarious for a lot of people: Reduction of labor rights; stigmatization of unemployment, down to calls for forced labor; inflation; heavy increase in taxes; unaffordable housing... Mind you, none of that is economically necessary (e.g. we could prosecute tax evasion and tax the rich to begin with). All while transparency and democratic institutions are needlessly eroded.

And then there is the real threat of a next AfD (fascists oligarchy party) government looming above all. It's like CDU/SPD are preparing for a authoritarian take-over. Incidentally, there are documented connections between CDU leaders and foreign think tanks like The Heritage Foundation. Not to mention the constant endorsement and promotion of the AfD by Musk and Vance.

It's fucking wild and scary. I honestly fear, Germany is past the point of no return. I think we got moderately lucky Trump decided to outdo himself with Iran, and then the recent record heat wave, which felt downright apocalyptic. The theoretical negative consequences of some policies became immediately very tangible and undeniable. But I am not sure that's enough to shake up people. The opposition is somewhat complicit by not stepping up and presenting a vision towards democracy, equality and reason.

FoIA requests humiliated half of the chancellor’s cabinet this year, including the chancellor himself.

The agricultural minister (CDU) was especially proud of his nickname "the black butcher".

Someone sent a request inquiring about the hygiene protocols of his butchers shop via FoIA and he rather closed shop to deny access to the protocols than hand them out. This is now in front of a court and the media made fun of him for being the black butcher without a butchery.

Digital Minister (CDU) went on TV and proudly announced no more fax machines in his ministry.

Someone sent his undersecretary a fax the same day with the title "Jäger des verlorenen Faxes" which translates into "hunter of the lost fax" and is a Hommage to the German Indiana Jones raiders of the last ark movie title.

Two weeks later the minister sat in an interview and said he needed to correct himself. If he sees another fax machine in his ministry it’s going to get thrown out.

There was a huge conference that is run annually by a company the culture minister is controlling that allowed access to major German political figures including private talks, including the minister of economy, for a fixed price.

It was only uncovered by a FoIA request. It was so bad the Bavarian prime minister had to pull any funding and recommendations to the conference and had to stay away from it after going there for years.

Just this week the mayor of Berlin (CDU) had to give up his spot as top candidate in the upcoming mayoral race because he lied to the press and even lied repeatedly about phoning with the chancellor during the major attack on the energy infrastructure in Berlin by allegedly left-wing extremists.

A FoIA request busted the lying mayor as well as the lying chancellor, whose ministry couldn’t provide any proof they telephoned at all at the time they both said they had phoned, when a court asked them to deliver proof to the court.

This is only on the federal level, in a single year.

IFG/FoIA busted tons of lying and cheating local politicians over the years. Of course, the party that is involved in most of the heavy cases does want this law to die or be completely ineffective.

It’s very annoying for the chancellor that normal people have the right to inform themselves who and how decisions were made as soon as public money is involved.

But he’s also calling every German citizen lazy and cheating with sick days, etc., so I’d say the German people have a huge reason to distrust this cabinet and use the IFG/FoIA as the small man’s nuclear bomb, and the cabinet really doesn’t like that the peasants can fight back with the most annoying weapon in their arsenal, counter-bureaucracy.

Also, there was big scandal from then health minister of Germany [2] and the information came out through various media out lets. I can imagine the politicians wants to prevent that happening in the future as well, so the corruption would go undetected (this is just my opinion)

[1]- https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-blackout-how-dangerous-are-left... [2] - https://www.dw.com/en/covid-19-german-govt-suffers-defeat-in...

Yea, I don't give a shit wether only citizen should be able to request data.

Like GDPR, the existence of FoI laws give government agencies a reason to develop systems to quickly and effortlessly give people the access they're entitled to. Given the existence of such systems (analogous to the "data takeout" systems businesses must have for PII), giving access to foreigners as well should be unproblematic. It's supposed to be public information in the first place, roadblocks have no place.