Radicalization: Crimes against politicians increase in the Corona year

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A raging crowd, whistles, "shame" shouts - the scenes on the sidelines of an election campaign appearance by Health Minister Jens Spahn attracted attention in August.

The CDU politician wanted to talk, the crowd didn't.

Then Spahn filed charges of insult, one of the demonstrators had called him "gay pig".

The man paid a fine of 2800 euros.

The case is exemplary for many others.

The politically motivated crime against politicians increased sharply in the Corona year.

According to a preliminary analysis, the authorities counted 2,629 crimes against officials and elected officials in the past year.

This emerges from a response from the Federal Ministry of the Interior to a small question from Left MP Ulla Jelpke.

WELT has the paper.

The increase compared to the previous year corresponds to an increase of 57 percent - in 2019 there were still 1674 cases.

Compared to 2018 (1256 cases) the number is even more than twice as high.

Many acts cannot be assigned politically

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The list of the most frequent crimes is headed by a large margin with insults (1247 cases).

Coercion / threat (403), property damage (228) and sedition (212) follow.

Source: WORLD infographic

There has been a slight decrease in violent crimes - from 87 in 2019 to 78 cases in the past year.

Among other things, it concerns an attempted homicide as well as an explosives offense and seven arson attacks.

The majority of cases in this category account for extortion (48) and assault (17).

In 2019 the number rose sharply and more than doubled.

The murder of the CDU politician Walter Lübcke and reports from politicians had led to a broad social debate about hatred and violence.

A year later, you have to realize that the situation has not improved significantly.

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"Currently, the corona events and the state measures to contain the pandemic are leading to increasing protest and resistance against the state and its representatives, especially among actors from the phenomenon of politically motivated crime 'right' and 'left'," says the Federal Ministry of the Interior in the Answer.

How strong the increase that can be explained in this way is not quantified.

As the Ministry of the Interior explains, there is no nationwide reporting term.

Nevertheless, the authorities see 374 crimes against officials and elected officials in the previous year as a Corona reference, at least 14 percent of the cases.

Crime has risen particularly sharply in the area that cannot be clearly assigned politically, as the Interior Ministry writes.

370 of the offenses belong to the left category, 901 to the right category.

Compared to the previous year, this corresponds to an increase of almost 20 percent on the left (2019: 310 cases) and on the right by 48 percent (2019: 609 cases).

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On the other hand, there are 1339 crimes that cannot be assigned and do not fall into the smallest categories of “foreign ideology” (15) and “religious ideology” (four).

Here the number has increased by 84 percent (2019: 727 cases).

Source: WORLD infographic

The Ministry of the Interior suspects that the many cases can also be explained by the Internet: The large number of insults, coercion or threats are likely to "be committed anonymously, including using the Internet and social media," it says.

"The supposed anonymity leads to increasing verbal radicalism and to more statements relevant to criminal law in the virtual space."

In addition, the authorities assign almost ten percent (243 cases) of the criminal offenses and almost half of all violent crimes (42) against officials and mandate holders to the so-called Reich citizen scene.

“The fact that the violence has not increased is a good sign.

What worries me most, however, is the high proportion of crimes committed by citizens of the Reich, ”said Jelpke, the domestic political spokeswoman for the left-wing group.

After all, it is a “relatively small following” who is “highly violent”.

Jelpke criticized the fact that the crimes assigned to the Reich citizen scene were not generally counted as part of the right-wing extremist spectrum.

“That distorts the statistics.

In reality, a dangerous, violent, right-wing extremist brood threatens to grow up here, ”said the member of the Bundestag.

AfD politicians particularly affected

The AfD officials and mandate holders were particularly often victims, namely in 863 cases - that is almost 42 percent of all acts in which the party affiliation is known.

Far behind is the Union with 306 crimes (CDU: 257; CSU: 49), then the SPD (293), Greens (252), Left (192) and FDP (56).

102 criminal offenses concerned members of parties that are not represented in the Bundestag.

In addition to politicians who hold an office or mandate, party members or institutions are also victims of politically motivated crime - such cases account for more than 1,100 additional crimes.

Looking at the current super election year with six state elections, four local elections and the federal election, the Interior Ministry is rather pessimistic.

Experience in recent years has shown that in the run-up to elections, an increase in politically motivated crimes against parties and politicians must be expected.

In particular, the ministry expects an increase in acts that cannot be assigned to any clear political direction.