In the wake of the hostage-taking incident that occurred at Hamburg Airport over the weekend, controversial allegations are now being made in German federal politics. For example, the CDU and CSU are calling for the protection of German airports to be improved.

The police union has already commented significant criticism and pointed out, among other things, that the climate stickers had already shown how easy it is to break into the security areas of German airports and cause mischief there. However, neither the operators nor the politicians who set the framework conditions have learned anything from it. Rather, the activities of the climate gluers were downright downplayed.

The self-proclaimed activists probably did not intend to point out blatant security deficiencies at German airports. Although their intention is completely different and is limited to damage to property and creating as much fuss as possible, it also makes potential terrorists aware of how easy it is in Germany to get to aprons and directly to aircraft. Depending on the incident, the climate stickers had a lot of time at their disposal and could, for example, stain a private jet with paint. In Sylt the engines were badly damaged.

The hostage-taking in Hamburg has shown that the airports are apparently not prepared if a person with criminally relevant intentions tries to enter the area using a commercially available car. This is exactly what the police union is criticizing, because they argue that it seems almost absurd to the population that Christmas markets are secured with concrete barriers, but at airports there are only barriers and fences that apparently do not offer sufficient protection.

Not surprisingly, there is now mutual blame in federal politics. Above all, the CDU and CSU are demanding that immediate action be taken. It should be noted that the Union parties had more than enough opportunity to do this. Only interrupted by the chancellorship of Gerhard Schröder (SPD), the two parties under Chancellors Helmut Kohl and Angela Merkel (both CDU) held government responsibility for decades. This meant that they were largely responsible for the legislation.

Therefore, the demand that one “cannot continue to go through the world naively” seems a little absurd. It is clear that the current government cannot act overnight simply because of the parliamentary process through which legislation must be passed. Furthermore, improved security facilities and additional personnel for security services and the police are not “in stock”. Nobody denies that there is an acute need for action. Only one airport is downplaying the situation in light of the Hamburg incident and continues to spread the myth that Germany's airports are the safest in the world. This image has been crumbling since the climate glue campaigns and especially since the hostage-taking in Hamburg.