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German government rejects petition for systematic Stasi check

The proposals put forward by Germany’s liberal Free Democrats suggested that everyone who had held a seat in parliament from 1949 onwards should be subjected to what it called a ‘Stasi check’.

But the motion met with resounding resistance from across the political spectrum, with the vast majority of Christian Democrats, Christian Social Union, Social Democrats and Left Party MPs voting against it. The Green Party abstained from the ballot altogether.

The FDP move was sparked by the revelation that West German policeman, Karl-Heinz Kurras, who shot and killed student demonstrator, Benno Ohnesorg, had been spying for the Stasi since 1955.

Justifying his party's calls for the systematic checks, liberal MP Christoph Waitz said the FDP wanted “a substantiated investigation into the extent to which political decisions were influenced.” He said nobody could seriously want former West Stasi agents holding sensitive government positions today.

Read entire article at Deutsche Welle