The threats to democracy and security have increased further.

"The security situation is tense," said the President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang.

The threat is "at a very high level, and the trend is rising".

According to Haldenwang, his authority is working “under high pressure” in all areas.

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is observing a spread of disinformation in all fields of extremism.

Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has also seen an increased risk of cyber espionage.

Haldenwang spoke of a "clear systemic competition" and that the threat situation was in no way inferior to that at the time of the Cold War.

Haldenwang also reported on Russian research activities that served to prepare for cyber attacks on critical infrastructure.

Helen Bubrowski

Political correspondent in Berlin.

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The number of right-wing extremists has increased again compared to the previous year and is now 33,900 people, of whom the Office for the Protection of the Constitution estimates 13,500 to be violent.

This number has also increased compared to 2021.

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) once again described right-wing extremism as the "greatest threat to democracy".

The only positive thing is that crimes with an extremist background have fallen compared to the previous year, but the total number of 20,201 crimes, including 945 violent crimes, is still high.

Reich citizen potential is growing

The goal of the right-wing extremists is the "connectivity to bourgeois-democratic circles", as can be read in the protection of the constitution.

To do this, they exploited the protests against the state corona protection measures and the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley.

"Right-wing extremists abuse every crisis," said Faeser.

According to information from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the efforts of the right-wing extremists have not been very successful in the past.

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution lists the AfD as a suspected right-wing extremist.

After more than a year of legal disputes, the administrative court in Cologne ruled in March that the assessment by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution was based “on an overall view that was not objectionable”.

In the 2021 report for the protection of the constitution, the AfD is not yet included, only the youth organization “Junge Alternative” and the supporters of the formally dissolved “Flugel”.

Haldenwang made it clear that the classification of the entire party as a suspected case does not mean that every party member will be added to the number of right-wing extremists in the coming year.

Not only right-wing extremists mingled with the Corona protests, the constitutional protection officers also observed indications of anti-constitutional efforts in other people who did not fit into any of the established phenomena of the protection of the constitution.

Therefore, in spring 2021, the authority set up the new area "Delegitimization of the State Relevant for the Protection of the Constitution".

The report for the protection of the constitution states that the actors in this area of ​​phenomena aim to "defeat essential constitutional principles or significantly impair the functioning of the state or its institutions".

They disparaged democratic decision-making processes and legislative, executive and judicial institutions,