Constitutional Protection Report: Radicalized in the Corona Pandemic

Constitutional Protection Report: Right-wing scene is apparently getting a boost from the corona crisis

Frank Jahn, ARD Berlin, daily news 5:00 p.m., June 15, 2021

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Networking is a problem

Haldenwang highlighted the right-wing extremist attack in Hanau, in which nine people were murdered last year – by a perpetrator who was mentally ill but also clearly right-wing extremist. “Such right-wing extremist attacks do not just happen. They are the result of an aggravation of the situation, which is caused by the networking of different actors and by the uninhibited language on the Internet and in the real world,” said Haldenwang.

Three organizations banned

Three right-wing extremist clubs were banned as a reaction: Combat 18 Germany, Nordadler and Sturm / Wolfsbrigade 44. Seehofer spoke of a sign to the scene. In the pandemic, however, conspiracy theories intensified, and right-wing extremists romped about in the demonstrations against the corona measures and acted on ordinary citizens.

This is not a new finding – but this is one of the reasons why the report on the protection of the constitution is now paying particular attention to the New Right. For example, the Identitarian Movement Germany, Compact Magazin GmbH and the Institute for State Policy are named as actors.

“The New Right – these are the ones who ensure that new people are radicalized and recruited for further right-wing extremist groups. The New Right gives right-wing extremist violent criminals their ideological justification for what they do,” said Haldenwang. “They preach to them from morning to evening that there is a great change of people in Germany and that one has to put up resistance against it.”

Haldenwang is certain: The New Right are the intellectual arsonists of the right-wing extremist scene. He and his staff want to be breakwaters, he said. So far, however, the right-wing extremist wave has not broken – it is growing.

Left-wing violence in small groups

And the protection of the constitution is also increasingly dealing with left-wing extremist acts of violence. They rose by 34 percent in 2020 compared to the previous year. There have been five attempted homicides. The victims were right-wing extremists. “This scene is increasingly aggressive and also uninhibited. In the past, left-wing extremist violence mainly took place during demonstrations. In recent years, however, there have been increasingly clandestine acts of violence planned by small groups,” said Seehofer.

Numerous measures are in progress

The federal government has adopted numerous measures against right-wing extremism, racism and anti-Semitism, most recently enabling the protection of the constitution to read and listen to messenger services. But when the measures worked, he was quite open, said Seehofer: The process will probably take years.