The security threat linked to the far right is "very high in Germany," Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said Friday after the racist bombing in Hanau which left nine people dead Wednesday evening.
"We will strengthen our surveillance of sensitive places, in particular mosques", as well as in airports, stations and at borders, announced the minister at a press conference in Berlin.
Extreme law violence, "the main danger"
Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht, for her part, promised that the government would "carefully examine" how "extremists" can find themselves legally in possession of weapons, as was the case with the assailant in Hanau.
According to the official, far-right violence currently represents "the main danger" for German democracy, not only because of the "number" of suspects but also because of the "intensity" of their determination.
Horst Seehofer refused to allow the racist motivation of the suspect in Hanau, who committed suicide, to be "put into perspective", on the grounds that the 24-page text he left behind testifies to an old feeling of persecution and develops conspiracy theories.
Hard-to-detect suspects
But while Tobias R. in all likelihood acted alone, like the man who had killed two people last October in Halle after trying to attack a synagogue, the two ministers stressed the difficulty of detecting these suspects.
"About half" of those who commit the act "were not known to the police," said chief of the criminal police, Holger Münch.
Germany has just strengthened its gun control, and also adopted this Wednesday in the Council of Ministers a new arsenal aimed at detecting threats from the far right on the Internet and punishing them harsher.
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