A package of measures to counter right-wing extremism, including on the Internet, was adopted by the German government, said Horst Seehofer, head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
“This is the first package of measures against right-wing extremism and crime that the government has taken”, – Seehofer said at a briefing in Berlin.
He added that this is a “big and serious problem”.
The minister emphasized that “the level of threat from right-wing extremism, right-wing terrorism and anti-Semitism remains high” in Germany. Every fourth German citizen shares anti-Semitic views, the newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung reported earlier, citing data from a study by the World Jewish Congress.
The package of measures contains, inter alia, a provision on empowering providers and owners of Internet platforms with the obligation to report violating the law “content and IP-addresses to the new Central unit of the Federal criminal police Department”, according to a press release of the German government on this topic, published on Wednesday.
It is “primarily about the threats of homicide and incitement to hatred”. Penalties for these violations will be toughened, the corresponding changes will be made to the Criminal Code.
Regional politicians will be able to take advantage of “special protection” from the state, for this article 188 of the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Germany will be extended to them, which provides for punishment of up to 5 years in prison for public defamation and defamation of a person “involved in political life”. Particular protection, according to Article 113 of the Criminal Code of the Federal Republic of Germany, will be extended to health workers, including employees of resuscitation services, who also often become victims of violence by right-wing radicals.
The package of measures also envisages toughening the law on arms control, strengthening cooperation between the land and federal police, and supporting work in the field of the prevention of crimes committed on the basis of extremist, anti-Semitic, racist and hateful motives. In particular, financing the state program “Live by democracy!” (Demokratie leben!) will amount to 115 million euros annually until 2023.
In recent months, several high-profile crimes of right-wing extremism have occurred in Germany. The attack on the synagogue in German Galle, in which there were 51 people celebrating Yom Kippur, occurred on October 9. The suspect is a 27-year-old German citizen, Steffan B., he is arrested. During the attack, two passers-by were killed, two more people were injured. The German authorities called the crime a right-wing extremist anti-Semitic act.
In June, the head of the city government in the city of Kassel, 65-year-old Walter Lubke, was killed. According to the prosecutor’s office of the federal state of Hesse, the extremist views of the alleged offender were the motive for the murder.
Participants in the regional parliamentary elections (Landtag) in the federal state of Thuringia, which took place on November 27, publicly announced their threats of murder by right-wing extremists.