Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer is concerned about the increase in politically motivated crime.
The corona pandemic is causing further polarization.
Berlin - Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU *) sees “clear brutal tendencies in our country”. He said that at the federal press conference for the presentation of the current statistics on politically motivated crime from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) for 2020. The politician was concerned about increasing numbers. The BKA has recorded an increase of eight and a half percent since the previous year. The figures showed that the "trend of the past few years is solidifying," said Seehofer.
As on previous occasions, he named right-wing extremism as the greatest threat to the security of the Federal Republic.
He referred, among other things, to the racist attack in Hanau, which cost ten lives in February 2020.
This is "the third right-wing extremist attack in a few months", in addition to the attack in Halle and the Walter Lübcke murder.
Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer on politically motivated crimes - new statistics from the BKA
The Federal Criminal Police Office presents a total of 44,692 criminal offenses in its statistics. More than half can be assigned to the right-wing extremist spectrum (23,604, of which 1,092 acts of violence). "The number of right-wing extremist crimes has reached a new high since it was first recorded (for around 20 years)," affirmed the Minister of the Interior. The number of anti-Semitic attacks, which are also “almost exclusively” right-wing extremists, has also increased, according to Seehofer. The BKA recorded an increase of almost 16 percent. Especially “in view of our history”, said the former Bavarian Prime Minister, this was “deeply shameful”.
The corona pandemic is causing further polarization in society. In doing so, one records “new coalitions between simple, normal demonstrators” and actors: inside extremist sentiments. Especially the protests with a large number of participants have a high potential for escalation with sometimes considerable excesses. The BKA recorded around 3500 criminal offenses under the keyword “Corona 2020”. At "lateral thinkers" meetings, there are repeated attacks on the police and media workers. Of the 270 crimes against journalists in 2020, 112 were committed in connection with corona protests. Just recently, Reporters Without Borders published the ranking of press freedom, in which Germany no longer occupies one of the top positions for the first time.
"The numerous corona deniers and the right-wing extremists involved are currently benefiting from the weaknesses in analysis by the security authorities," said the Greens * expert Irene Mihalic on Tuesday after presenting the current statistics to the AFP.
"The open spread of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial as well as the spread of well-known right-wing extremist conspiracy theories must also be recognized as such." on.
Consistent action against all forms of right-wing extremism is crucial.
"NSU 2.0": suspect arrested in connection with threatening emails - congratulations from BKA boss Münch
Hate crime increased by a total of 19.2 percent. Here, too, at 87 percent, the focus is on right-wing extremism, said Seehofer. There was also a significant increase in left-wing extremism compared to the previous year, by almost 45 percent. The tendency is going away from “demonstration-related mass militancy” towards acts of “conspiratorial small groups”. The number of religiously motivated crimes rose by 12.2 percent. There is a particular danger from Islamism, according to Seehofer. In Germany there were 579 threats, 533 other people were listed as "relevant persons". The Federal Minister of the Interior praised the Federal Criminal Police Office for the recent discovery of a child pornography ring and the "NSU 2.0" investigations, "in which the BKA was not uninvolved," as Seehofer put it.
BKA boss Holger Münch, who was present at the federal press conference, congratulated Hessen on the investigation. He admitted that it was correct "that the data queries on police computers existed". However, there was early evidence that the data was “self-procured” through calls to authorities. It has not yet been fully clarified how the procedure was carried out and how the data was accessed, according to Münch.
(aka with material from AFP) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.