In Germany, there is an increase in crimes motivated by right and left extremism, their number increased by 8.5% last year, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said at a briefing in Berlin.
“Political crime in the Federal Republic of Germany, crime motivated by politics, has grown significantly. The Federal Criminal Police Office last year recorded 8.5% more politically motivated crimes than a year earlier. Even if these crimes account for about 1% of the total number of crimes , these figures are of great concern, because in this way the trend of recent years is strengthening and because political crime is growing significantly”, – said Seehofer.
He cited statistics according to which the number of violent crimes motivated by racism, anti-Semitism and intolerance increased by 18.8% last year. 11 people were killed, another 13 crimes under the article “attempted murder” were prevented.
At the same time, more than 23 thousand crimes fell to the share of right-wing extremists (plus 5.7% compared to 2019), left-wing extremists – about 11 thousand (an increase in comparison with 2019 was almost 11%). Seehofer said the number of crimes motivated by right-wing political opinions “reached a new record since the start of counting” in 2001. Almost 85% of all right-wing crimes are charges of insults, defamation, propaganda, incitement to hatred, the minister said.
Seehofer pointed to a “significant increase” in anti-Semitic crimes last year, at 15.7%. The minister called this situation “not only of great concern, but also deeply shameful, given our history”.
The minister pointed to the “new coalitions” that are emerging during the protests of opponents of the measures taken by the authorities to combat the coronavirus. According to Seehofer, along with “ordinary, normal demonstrators”, these actions are attended by “adherents of conspiracy theories, opponents of vaccination, esoterics, members of the organization” Reich Citizens” banned in Germany and other extremists”.
In this regard, first of all, major events have “a high potential for escalation”, the minister believes. In total, almost 3.5 thousand crimes were recorded at the actions of covid dissidents last year, including 112 attacks on journalists, he added.
The number of attacks on civil servants and elected representatives has doubled in 2020 compared to the previous year, the minister said.
Right-wing extremists committed several high-profile crimes in Germany last year. In February, a 43-year-old German citizen shot people in two hookah bars in the city of Hanau in the federal state of Hesse, killing nine people with migratory backgrounds. The man then returned home, where he killed his mother and committed suicide. German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said that what happened in Hanau was a terrorist attack committed out of the murderer’s racist convictions.
In 2019, the head of the city government in Kassel, 65-year-old Walter Lübcke, was killed by a German neo-Nazi. In October 2019, in the German city of Halle, a man opened fire at a synagogue and a kebab shop. The attack killed two people. The suspect was detained. According to the authorities, he planned to infiltrate the synagogue, which contained 51 people, and arrange a “massacre” there.