For many years, especially ever since 9/11 in 2001, German governments have been pushing very hard for so-called security legislation, removing civil liberties and enhancing the surveillance capabilities of the various government agencies.
The only sensible response is not coming from _any_ political party in the opposition. Neither the self-proclaimed civil liberties friends of the FDP nor the Green party are cutting it.
This, by the way, extends beyond just security/surveillance related legislation, but also e.g. with regard to the use of voting machines in federal elections. Only recently the constitutional court decided that the legislation as well as the actual devices used in the last election were unconstitutional.
The only people involved in the public debate who show a lot of reason are the judges of the German constitutional court (Bundesverfassungsgericht). Particularly the president of the court, Hans-Juergen Papier is a true hero to me, constantly fighting for the values of our constitution - not irritated by the general mood of the day or any hectic political activism by the government.
What is even more surprising: Mr. Papier is himself from a conservative political background: The Bavarian CSU party.
In recent times, there is an actual fight between Mr. Papier and our ultra-conservative home minister (Schaeuble). Mr. Schaeuble is now going as far as to publicly stating things like 'those who want to be part of legislation should aim for becoming of parliament' or 'i have doubts on how far it is constitutional what the constitutional court is doing'.
This is just unbelievable. How can the government afford to have a minister who openly doubts the legitimacy of the decisions of the highest body of justice in this country? If people really cared about justice and our constitution, it should be immediate grounds to dismiss this minister.