Germany reports spike in far-right crime for 2019

BERLIN: Germany saw a spike in far-right crimes including anti-Semitic attacks last year, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Wednesday, describing the trend as a “great concern”.

Authorities registered more than 41,000 politically motivated crimes in 2019, ranging from hate speech to bodily harm, arson and murder—a rise of 14.2 per cent on 2018 and the second-sharpest jump since records began in 2001.

Crimes committed by members of the far-right scene grew 9.4 per cent, and accounted for more than half of all politically-motivated crimes.

Although such crimes represent a small fraction of overall lawbreaking in Germany, the figures have a “striking significance ... for the stability of our democracy”, Seehofer said, adding that the rise was “of great concern”.

Some 93.4 per cent of anti-Semitic and 90.1 per cent of Islamophobic crimes had a far-right motivation, Seehofer said.

Germany has been rocked by a string of extreme-right attacks over the past 12 months. A gunman with apparent far-right beliefs killed nine people at a shisha bar and a cafe in the city of Hanau in February, while two people were killed in an attack targeting a synagogue in Halle in October.

In June, pro-immigration politician Walter Luebcke was found shot dead at his home in the state of Hesse, and a far-right sympathiser arrested soon afterwards was last month charged with his murder.

Seehofer proclaimed in March that right-wing extremism and right-wing terrorism were “the biggest danger for democracy in Germany”, promising a beefed up security response.