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These violent actions become relevant due to their ability to undermine the constitutional order.
Germany’s Interior Minister Horst Seehofer noted that his country registered 41,777 politically motivated crimes in 2019, which is the second-largest figure in the last twenty years.
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Although politically motivated crimes represent only a tiny fraction of the 5.3 million crimes recorded in Germany last year, they are "significant" in terms of their importance to the stability of democracy, the political system, and of the constitutional order, Seehofer said.
The far-right's political crimes reached 22,342 cases, according to the annual report presented by the Federal Office of Criminal Investigation (BKA) President Holger Munch.
In the past year, Germany recorded 2,032 anti-Semitic crimes, 93.4 percent of which had an extreme right-wing motivation. There were also 950 crimes against the Muslim community, 90.1 percent of which was attributed to the extreme right.
"The greatest threat in politically motivated crimes comes from the extreme right," the German minister said, adding that society must remain vigilant in the face of actions such as the anti-Semitic attack in Halle that caused two deaths, the attack in Hanau that generated nine fatalities, and the murder of politician Walter Lubcke.
Disappointing to read Germany is also having protests against coronavirus restrictions led by anti-vaxxers and neo-Nazis, in part thanks to the far-right AfD party.
— Alex DiBranco (@alexdibranco) May 20, 2020
"Few wore masks, and those that did came with slogans like 'Merkel’s muzzle.'”https://t.co/Z0sRuvUlas
In this environment of intercultural tension, the politically motivated crimes committed by the "Reich Citizens" (Reichsburger), a movement that does not recognize the legitimacy of the current Federal Republic, fell by 22.1 percent to 186 cases.
Seehofer explained that decline as an effect of the prohibition and dissolution of the "United German Peoples and Tribes", another extremist group linked to the Reichsburger.
In 2019, crimes attributable to a foreign ideology decreased by 23.7 percent to 1,897 cases, 73 percent of which were related to the Turkish conflict. Offenses prompted by a religious ideology decreased by 27.5 percent to 425 cases.
In explaining this lates evolution, the BKA report recalled the loss of territorial control of the Islamic State and the changes in the situation in Syria and Iraq.
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