All the German media reported on a press conference in Berlin by Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt on the state of affairs with politically motivated crime. He spoke together with the head of the federal criminal department. The report itself was published the day before.
One of the well-known newspapers called the data provided by the minister a shock. Dobrindt himself demanded from law enforcement agencies a “decisive turn in their activities.” The report notes an increase in the total number of politically motivated crimes registered. Their number over the past year has exceeded the figure of 84 thousand. This is 24,000 more than in 2023.
Dobrindt attributes the increase in the number of crimes of this kind to the intensification of the internal political struggle due to the early elections to the Bundestag and international events. First of all, the Israeli-Palestinian confrontation. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict was not mentioned by the minister as the reason for the escalation of political violence in Germany.
According to the Federal Criminal Department, crimes attributed to right-wing radicals have become more frequent in 2024. The number of such crimes has increased by almost 29 thousand compared to 2023. Anti-Semitic manifestations are also included in these statistics. However, many of these kinds of performances were also associated with anti-Israeli demonstrations by supporters of Palestinian organizations.
According to law enforcement agencies, violent acts with a political motive were also characteristic of the right-wing radical scene. As a percentage, they accounted for almost 44% of all violent acts committed.
So far, the German authorities are focusing on carrying out actions against right-wing extremists in the fight against extremism. After the arrest at the beginning of the year of Daniela Klette, a member of the left-wing extremist cell “Red Army Faction”, who had been hiding under a false name for 30 years, the police clearly weakened their interest in leftists. Although at the May Day demonstration in Berlin, masked people read out an appeal to Klette to the people of the country calling for a fight against the existing system. The appeal contained lines in support of the struggle of the Gazans.
Immediately after the Interior Minister’s speech, Stern magazine published data from the country’s Prosecutor General’s Office on the defeat of another right-wing extremist cell. The cell, which called itself the “Last Wave of Resistance,” was raided in three federal states. It is reported that five people have been arrested who planned attacks on migrant shelters and on a number of politicians. Explosives for making bombs were found in their possession. The authorities classify the group as neo-Nazis.
During a discussion with journalists at a press conference, the Interior Minister was asked about his attitude to the ban on the Alternative for Germany party, which earlier this year the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (German Counterintelligence) described in a multi-page study as “definitely right-wing extremist.” The demand for a ban was, in fact, supported by the then Minister of the Interior, the representative of the SPD Nancy Fraser.
Dobrindt, answering this question, stated that he sees no reason to ban right-wing populists. He believes that the counterintelligence report reflects only one aspect of the Alternative for Germany party’s activities – its disregard for the dignity of migrants. But this aspect, according to the minister, is not enough to ban the party. He believes that this requires evidence of its unconstitutional nature and anti-democratic orientation of actions.
In general, both the CSU and the CDU, unlike the SPD and the Greens, are more restrained about banning Alternatives for Germany. So far, only the Prime Minister of Schleswig-Holstein, Daniel Gunther, has openly demanded that the party be banned. But according to the Constitution, a ban can only come from the Constitutional Court at the request of the government or one of the two chambers of Parliament.
Now, due to the filing of a complaint by CDU lawyers to the court demanding that the report of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution regarding Alternative for Germany be banned, all actions against this party have been suspended. Any further activity will be possible only after the court’s decision.