I think they're referencing the fact that it's outside of the US, for privacy reasons. Not the quality of the software engineering.

Right, but at this point, German privacy laws are pretty horrible, too, and getting worse as we speak. The BND (German intelligence agency) also works closely with the NSA, and considering what's publicly known, it wouldn't surprise me, if the two exchange essentially all data behind closed doors.

What's more Interior Minister de Maizière is pushing an anti-encryption agenda.

Last Interior Minister who tried something like that did not got away with it unharmed [0]. De Maizère is one of the (or the, nobody likes von der Leyen) last remaining big shots of the CDU, Merkel has not killed yet. She is a funny silent killer and does it by stating that "X has her fullest [sic] trust" ("hat mein vollstes Vertrauen") after which they resign [1]. The German government consists entirely of people who are no thread to her: her own team (consisting of uncharismatic men), old men, younger woman, experts nobody knows, people from the smaller CSU and politicians from the SPD, who destroyed itself so badly that Merkel can even reap the rewards for the liberal policies they introduce. Underwood could learn so much from her, she killed two political parties and a generation of politicians in her own, while herself surviving one (world-scale) crisis after another.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi_2.0

[1] http://hatmerkelschonihrvertrauenausgesprochen.de/