Right-wing extremism in security agencies: more than just individual cases

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Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer (CSU)

Photo: Fabrizio Bensch / AFP

First a right-wing extremist Bundeswehr officer came under suspicion of terrorism.

Then police got involved in a radical prepper group that was preparing for "Day X".

Recently, several chat groups were exposed in which police officers spread racist or anti-Semitic agitation.

Officials may also have something to do with the neo-Nazi series of threats under the code "NSU 2.0".

Right-wing extremist incidents have repeatedly come to light in the security authorities in recent months and years.

"Obviously there are unacceptable cases of right-wing extremism in security agencies that go beyond individual cases."

Thomas Haldenwang, President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution

A first status report on "right-wing extremists in security agencies" has been available since Tuesday - written by the domestic secret service.

On 98 pages, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution lists numbers on right-wing extremist suspected cases in the paper.

And describes what the authorities are doing to prevent infiltration by extremists.

In total, there are almost 380 suspected cases with the federal and state security authorities, most of them with the police, less often with the secret services.

Officials were often noticed through racist, anti-Semitic or National Socialist chats.

This is a phenomenon that is unfortunately spreading, said Head of the Protection of the Constitution Thomas Haldenwang when presenting the report: "Obviously there are unacceptable cases of right-wing extremism in security authorities that go beyond individual cases."

The report is a first step, after all.

However, the Federal Office only had limited insight.

It was not allowed to look into the files itself, but had to rely on other authorities to submit its cases.

This is why there is resentment behind the scenes.

Some countries, which are relatively high in the ranking of the number of cases, suspect that other countries have not looked as closely as they did.

The report itself also makes it clear that the dark field is probably even greater.

"We are by no means at our destination," said Haldenwang, head of the protection of the constitution.

In fact, some of the numbers are already out of date with the appearance of the situation report: North Rhine-Westphalia initially reported 45 suspected cases to the federal government - after a right-wing extremist chat group in the Essen police headquarters was exposed, the state now speaks of 100 cases since the beginning of 2017.

New suspected cases have also become known in Berlin, Thuringia and Saxony in recent days.

Seehofer: No "structural problem" 

Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer gave the one hand and the other hand minister when the situation report was presented.

Every single case is a "shame and should be" rigorously "pursued, said Seehofer:" Even passive followers are not allowed. "On the one hand. 

On the other hand, the number of proven right-wing extremism cases in the report is very low compared to the number of almost 400,000 employees in the security authorities.

In any case, he does not recognize a "structural problem", "over 99 percent" of the officials are "firmly on the ground of the Basic Law," said the CSU politician.

Seehofer's message was: If there is a problem, then it is manageable, at least not big enough to speak of a "catastrophe" or to call out an "alarm". 

The Interior Minister continues to reject an additional racism study among police officers, which has recently been repeatedly called for.

He does not want to have individual professional groups scientifically examined, but to initiate a broad study on racism in society, according to Seehofer.

However, there are already numerous scientific surveys on this.

Studies on the spread of racist prejudice in the police, however, are rare.

The last major investigations date from the 1990s.

"Seehofer has to give up his stance of refusal and commission a scientific study on racism from the police in order to get a real inventory," demanded the FDP domestic politician Konstantin Kuhle.

The Green interior experts Irene Mihalic and Konstantin von Notz made a similar statement.

"The figures presented are already out of date, the number of unreported cases is extremely large," they said.

What is needed is "an independent scientific study that draws a reliable picture of the situation as soon as possible."

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