German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Tuesday that while Germany’s democracy was strong, it was coming under considerable pressure.
Among the threats she cited were far-right elements in German society and increasing espionage activities on the part of Russia and China.
Her comments came as Germany’s domestic intelligence agency BfV presented its report for 2023.
What the interior minister said about threats to Germany
Faeser called for active support of democratic ideals. “We must actively defend our democracy,” she said.
She also said the general security situation “is and remains tense,” while stressing that it was clear that “we will not let ourselves be intimidated.”
She named the Islamist scene with its antisemitic tendencies as one of the risks for security.
Faeser also spoke about the ongoing debate in Germany about whether to ban the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has gained a considerable following, particularly in the former communist east.
She said she was against any ban on the party, despite its having been classified as a “suspected case of far-right extremism” by the BfV, a status that was recently confirmed as legitimate by the higher regional court for North Rhine-Westphalia in Münster.
Faeser said that the party should instead be confronted politically.
She, however, called the ruling by the Münster court a “success for the BfV.”
The AfD is considered by some observers to have fueled racist crime in Germany with its harsh anti-immigration platform.
BfV President Thomas Haldenwang also spoke of a “very high level of threats,” with the risk of extremist Islamist attacks rising particularly since the deadly raids by Hamas in southern Israel on October 7.
He said the danger came both from jihadi terrorists and radicalized lone wolves.
The conflict in Gaza had also acted “like an accelerant for antisemitism in Germany,” he added.
Antisemitic crime rates soar amid Gaza war
According to the 2023 report, there was a record number of crimes with an extremist background in 2023, climbing by around 4,000 to 39,433.
The report said the number of crimes motivated by right-wing extremist ideologies increased by 22.4% in 2023, with a 13% increase of violent offenses in this category.
Left-wing extremist offenses were up 10.4%, while violent crimes fueled by leftist ideologies rose by a whole 20.8%.
But the largest increase in ideologically motivated crime was in those committed in connection with the Israel-Hamas war.
Here, there was a rise in 2023 of 56.6% overall, with a 45% increase in violent offenses.
tj/rc (Reuters, dpa, AFP)
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