Merz did not attribute the attack in his remarks Tuesday. “We are working intensively on that together with the security agencies, and we will present our findings and comment on them shortly,” he said.
According to German outlet Bild, Merz told members of his Christian Democratic Union party in a private meeting Monday that the government had “circumstantial evidence pointing to the perpetrators of the crime.”
Earlier this month, German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt suggested a state actor was behind the threat. “Many indications pointing in that direction,” he said on Aug. 6, shortly after the initial discovery.
Merz’s government is seeking to give more leeway to Germany’s intelligence services to stymie threats from adversaries such as Russia. Germany’s security “worsened significantly” since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a German intelligence report said last year.
Spies working for Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, the BND, could carry out acts of sabotage and conduct offensive cyber operations under proposed reforms.