The German secret services warn of the increase in extremism: “Our democracy is under considerable pressure”

The internal threats of extremism are just as dangerous for Germany’s security as the external ones, the German Interior Minister, Nancy Faeser, warned this Tuesday during the presentation in Berlin of the annual report of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). ), the German secret services inside the country. “We must actively defend our democracy, which is strong but under considerable pressure,” she said.

The security situation has worsened, according to the report, referring to 2023, and is “tense”, as described by the director of the BfV, Thomas Haldenwang. The number of extremists continues to increase, and especially the cases of those considered violent by the secret services are growing, that is, people who would be willing to attack or take up arms. A recent example is the arrest of the ultra group Reichsbürger, which was planning a violent coup d’état. “I do not bring good news about the security situation in Germany. Several negative trends that I reported on last year have been confirmed and have continued to grow,” he said.

External and internal security “are directly related,” Haldenwang explained. In the context of the Russian attack on Ukraine, the secret services were confronted with numerous activities of Russian intelligence within Germany or against Germany. Furthermore, the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel has intensified a conflict that directly impacts internal security by “increasing the potential threat posed by Islamist terrorism” in German territory, he added. The conflict in the Middle East has also accelerated anti-Semitic incidents that had already been growing in previous years.

The danger of the extreme right

Far-right extremism is of particular concern to the authorities. In 2023, crimes with far-right background increased by almost 25% to reach 920,000. The BfV has also recorded many more manifestations of this political trend, 153% more, generally focused on the denunciation of the asylum and migration policy of Olaf Scholz’s coalition government.

Haldenwang explained that the actors of the so-called “new right” are increasingly working in networks and trying to establish contacts between different groups. The secret meeting held in Potsdam at the end of 2023 that outraged the Germans and caused mass marches against them is a good example of this rapprochement between organizations. At that political meeting of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) they spoke with well-known neo-Nazis about a plan to expel millions of people with migratory backgrounds from the country. “We have been warning for some time about this tendency to unite. We are observing that some speeches are moving from debate to aggressive confrontation. And this applies to all phenomena. The repeated attacks on politicians in recent times are a symptom of this,” warned the director of the secret services.

The BfV confirms that there are “well-established” links between the groups of this new extremist right and members of the AfD, a party that is officially classified as suspected of extremism. Last May, justice endorsed this classification, which allows the secret services to monitor them with intelligence resources such as undercover agents or the recruitment of informants within the party, and even examine the communications of specific individuals.

The report dedicates a section to the Reichsbürger (citizens of the Reich), a movement that rejects the basic democratic order of the Federal Republic of Germany and whose leaders are being tried in three German cities for planning an attack against the Bundestag and members of the Government. . The BfV claims that they have never been as strong as in 2023, with around 25,000 members nationwide. 10% would be willing to use violence, he adds.

Risk of jihadist attacks

The risk of jihadist attacks has increased further since the October 7 attack by Hamas — 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 kidnapped — and Germany is in the spotlight of groups such as the Islamic State of Khorasan, which recently published on social networks calls to attack the venues of the Euro Cup that is being held these days in Germany. Hamas and other Islamist organizations such as Al Qaeda and the Islamic State are taking advantage of events in the Middle East to incite their supporters and recruit new ones.

Also of concern are individuals without clear links to any terrorist organization who “can be inspired by triggering events to act against soft targets,” Haldenwang said, referring to crowds, individual victims or places that can hardly be 100% protected. Today, Islamists are radicalized more and faster than a few years ago through social networks and messaging services such as Telegram, warns the BfV report, places that in many cases the German security authorities cannot reach. . “The prevention of these crimes poses a particular challenge,” the authors admit.

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution also considers the hostile activities of other states as a growing threat to security in Germany. He devotes an entire chapter to Russia, for example, and even warns against operations on German soil. “The potential threat posed by Russian intelligence services must be considered high,” states the document, which runs to more than 400 pages. Depending on the course of the war, Russia could react with sabotage activities that could also affect Germany as a direct target, alert. Last April the Police arrested two men in Bavaria suspected of spying for Moscow. The Prosecutor’s Office accuses one of them of planning an attack on German soil.

Follow all the international information onFacebook andxor inour weekly newsletter.

_