Germany: Left Party rejects draft law on telecom data storage

Germany's Left Party rejected a draft bill on the storage of personal telecoms data by the German state, proposed by the German Justice Minister Heiko Maas, during a Bundestag plenary session in Berlin, Friday. "It does not matter what you are saying, and - however you rename it - data preservation remains data preservation remains data preservation. Therefore we reject it," Left Party MP Jan Korte said. Korte slammed all justifications of those who are in favour of the bill, calling them nothing more than "educated babble." His final argument was that the law would put literally every citizen under general suspicion, "which is not compatible with a democratic state of law." According to the draft bill, telecommunication data should be preserved for 10 weeks to enable investigators to access them if "terroristic motives" are suspected.