Germany Live Blog: Berlin Security Conference Focuses on Russian Threat as Justice Minister Proposes Tougher Sex Crime Laws

On Tuesday, November 3, the 25th Berlin Security Conference opened in the German capital, a two-day gathering centered on what many in Europe regard as the gravest threat to the continent's peace in decades: Russian aggression, seen in the invasion of Ukraine and in hybrid attacks on other European countries. Lithuania, which shares an uneasy border with Russia and fears for its own security, is this year's partner country. President Gitanas Nauseda was scheduled to open the event and later meet Chancellor Friedrich Merz, with Lithuania's coming presidency of the Council of the European Union also on the agenda. The program lists a mid-morning speech by a "special guest" who had not been named.

The same day, Merz hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Berlin. The visit had been kept secret for security reasons and was announced by Merz himself. It comes as Zelenskyy presses European allies for more help while the United States proves increasingly unreliable. At a joint press conference, Merz said Germany would back Ukraine until the war ends, and that its outcome would shape European security for a long time. He promised winter aid as Russia is expected to strike civilian infrastructure heavily. German news agency DPA reported the package is expected to total €200 million, about $223.8 million. Zelenskyy said Ukraine would not have survived without German and European support.

Merz was skeptical about diplomacy. US-organized talks involving Ukrainian and Russian negotiators are planned in Abu Dhabi next week. He said it is important that Russia engage seriously on a ceasefire and then a peace agreement, and that he does not see that happening so far. His message to Moscow, he said, is that it is time to end the war.

Hybrid warfare was also behind a separate piece of news. German prosecutors announced the arrest of a Turkish man in Reutlingen, in the southwest, in connection with a fire set at a Starlink station in Poland in late September. He follows two other Turkish passport holders arrested on October 12. Prosecutors suspect he commissioned those two to carry out the arson, and arranged for another woman, also a suspect, to drive them to Poland on the night of September 22-23. Police found eight cellphones and munitions at his home. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the fire an act of hybrid warfare, and Poland is seeking extradition of those arrested. The station belongs to the state-owned telecom company Exatel and is used by Starlink, a key part of Ukraine's defense against Russian missiles and drones. It stayed operational after the fire.

In domestic politics, Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig of the SPD presented a bill tightening the law on sexual offenses. It would criminalize verbal sexual harassment, covering sexually meant remarks or gestures that could intimidate or pressure someone. The text avoids the word "catcalling," which the ministry considers controversial and trivializing. Gang rape would carry a minimum of five years in prison. Sexual assault or coercion by several perpetrators would carry a minimum of three years instead of two. Limitation periods for gang rapes and sexual assaults would be a uniform 20 years, where they can now be as short as five. Hubig called sexual harassment and sexualized violence a massive problem in many women's daily lives, and said women must be safe at home, online and in public.

The Federal Network Agency announced that new gas-fired power stations will be built by 2031 as backup when wind and solar fall short. Of 41 bids, 11 succeeded, 10 of them going to RWE and LEAG or their affiliates. The agency put annual costs at just over €800 million, to be spread across all electricity consumers through a new levy, by an amount not yet clear. The plants will run on gas first and switch to climate-neutral hydrogen by 2045 at the latest. Greenpeace said the government continues to chain the country to fossil fuel, noting that energy storage was excluded from the tender. Economy Minister Katherina Reiche has drawn criticism over her past ties to the energy sector.

Merz also said a bill to block expropriation of big landlords in Berlin is finished, with only the compensation level open: 100% or 80% of market value. He favors 100%. The Left Party, strongest in September's Berlin election, is in coalition talks with the Greens and SPD, whose exploratory paper includes expropriating firms holding at least 10,000 apartments. Whether Berlin can be barred federally is doubtful; even Hubig has doubts about a general prohibition.

Elsewhere, police in Rostock said a second child suffered slight mouth injuries from a needle hidden in Halloween candy, after a 9-year-old girl in Bremervörde hurt her tongue on a 5-cm pin in a chocolate bar. Other states report similar finds, and police are examining whether the harm was intentional. Reports also emerged of hackers heating supermarket freezers to 50 C in Lower Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia, with no culprit identified. Bavarian Premier Markus Söder, in the Emirates, called for a European-Arab free trade area and was due in Qatar next.