Last year, the German recorded a number of crimes committed by the extreme right.
These offenses, which range from Hitler salute to murder, have increased by 5.7% over one year according to the Minister of the Interior.
Germany last year recorded a record number of crimes attributable to the extreme right which remains "the greatest threat to the security of the country", announced Tuesday the Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer.
These various offenses range from assassinations, such as those of nine young people of foreign origin in Hanau, in the center of the country in February 2020, to incitement to racial hatred or Hitler salutes.
Highest level ever since 2001
They amounted to 23,604 last year, an increase of 5.7% over one year, according to the Conservative minister, and alone represent more than half of politically motivated offenses (44,692) perpetrated in Germany.
This is the highest level ever since statistics were put in place in 2001.
"There are clearly tendencies towards brutality in our country," lamented Horst Seehofer, also denouncing an increase in crimes committed by the far left and by Islamists. "These figures are very worrying," he said. "The trend observed in recent years is consolidating" while the pandemic has, according to him, caused "an increased polarization" of society.
The German authorities but also civil society organizations have continued to sound the alarm bells on the dangers presented by the resurgence of the far-right movement in a country haunted by its Nazi past.
This threat has long been underestimated by the internal intelligence services which, for several years, have mainly focused on the fight against Islamism and the jihadist threat.
The Halle attack
After the assassination in 2019 of a conservative official, a vigorous supporter of Chancellor Angela Merkel's migrant welcome policy, Germany was shocked by a failed attack on a synagogue in Halle, east of the 'Germany.
The assailant, since convicted, was a far-right sympathizer who, frustrated at not being able to enter the synagogue, had killed two people at random.
In February 2020, nine young people, all of foreign origin, were killed in Hanau, near Frankfurt, in a racist attack perpetrated by a man involved in the conspiracy movement.
Twelve members of a neo-Nazi small group have also been on trial since mid-April in Stuttgart, in the south-west of the country, accused of having planned attacks against mosques and political leaders.