Far-right violence a ‘significant’ threat to German democracy, minister warns

A surge in far-right violence, Islamist extremism and cyber-attacks from Russia and China are putting German democracy under “significant” threat, the interior minister, Nancy Faeser, said as she presented a government report on domestic and foreign adversaries.

The wars in Ukraine and Gaza are having strong ripple effects on German security, driving radicalism and attacks, the study by the office for the protection of the constitution (BfV) found.

“Our democracy is strong but it is under significant pressure,” Faeser said. “We have got to stand up to domestic threats from extremism as decisively as to external threats, above all from the Russian regime.”

The 400-page annual report found an “alarming” increase in extremists of all stripes, the BfV president, Thomas Haldenwang, told the news conference.

The number of extremist crimes across the ideological spectrum increased by nearly 4,000 last year to just under 40,000, with a particularly strong rise of about 25% in far-right offences.

Haldenwang’s agency counted about 40,600 people in the far-right scene, up nearly 2,000 from 2022, with more than one-third seen as prepared to use violence. Haldenwang called rightwing extremists the largest group hostile to Germany’s rule of law.

About 1,270 acts of rightwing extremist violence were recorded, up 13%. Racist and xenophobic offences soared to more than 10,400 during the same period, a 39% rise.

The Reichsbürger and other linked subgroups that seek to undermine or overthrow Germany’s constitutional order had 25,000 supporters, up 2,000 from last year, with 10% assessed as potentially violent.

Haldenwang underscored the growth of the “new right” scene using “alternative media” and social networks to penetrate the mainstream with racist and revisionist propaganda.

A previous report in May by the federal criminal police office said politically motivated crime reached a record level last year.

Leftwing extremists, seen as less dangerous but more numerous, grew by 500 people to 37,000, while Islamists numbered 27,200, unchanged from 2022.

“Coordinated, complex, long-planned attacks remain conceivable in Germany,” Faeser said. She cited the Islamic State group, particularly its regional branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as a notable threat.

Haldenwang highlighted the dangers posed by Islamist terror groups as well as radicalised individuals, saying the war in Gaza had “fanned the flames of antisemitism in Germany” since the 7 October attacks on Israel by Hamas.

Crimes targeting Jews and Israelis rose to 1,342 in October 2023 alone, according to official statistics, up from 208 the year before. Far-right, far-left and Islamist groups were “exploiting” Middle East tensions to whip up antisemitism, the report found. In light of Germany’s Nazi past, Faeser called the development “disgusting”.

Asked if his agency had tracked a similar surge in anti-Muslim crime during the same period, Haldenwang said such a trend was “not observed”.

Spying, sabotage, disinformation and cyber-attacks last year “reached a new dimension”, Faeser said, with the main culprits seen as Russia and China as well as Iran.

Moscow is seeking to use social media “propaganda” to undermine public faith in Europe’s top economy due to its support for Ukraine, Faeser said, while Beijing has stepped up hacking, challenging Germany’s defences against industrial and military espionage.

Addressing the threat posed by the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), security authorities found a continuous drift toward extremism among its ranks.

“There is still – albeit a significantly shrinking – heterogeneity within the party so that not all members can be seen as belonging to extremist movements,” the report said.

The party is under observation by the BfV as a suspected extremist organisation, which Haldenwang said was unlikely to change in the coming months.

The AfD scored 16% in European elections this month and is leading in the polls before three state elections in ex-communist east Germany in September.