But there’s another major story. Many feared that Germany might shift to the right, following countries like Austria or Switzerland, where xenophobic parties have long been powerful. Instead, Germany’s far-right, anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) lost 11 seats, receiving about 10 percent of the vote.

Why did the AfD lose votes in this election? In an age where right-wing populists appeal to many voters, the German election results suggest that centrist parties are finding ways to contain the far right.

Why the AfD lost ground

In 2017, following highly politicized refugee inflows entering Europe and Germany, the AfD won 12.6 percent of the vote and 94 seats in the Bundestag, Germany’s federal parliament. For the first time since World War II, a far-right party had made it into the Bundestag.

The anti-Muslim AfD scored big in Germany’s 2017 election. What does this mean for German Muslims?

Numerous polls since then showed the AfD gaining supporters, even outperforming the Social Democrats at times. But by early 2021, AfD support had ebbed, in part because of moves by Germany’s centrist parties. Instead of engaging in debates about immigration, centrist candidates tried to strike a moderate or even welcoming tone on immigration. And rather than make immigration a central theme in the election, they focused on other issues that German voters care about, including economic security and climate change.

When centrist parties face far-right challengers, research suggests that they have three strategic options: They can move to the right and co-opt far-right positions; they can stand their ground and denounce the far right’s positions; or they can shift the agenda and downplay issues on which the far right thrives — typically issues such as immigration, multiculturalism or crime.

In recent years, German parties have tried out all of these approaches — and, for the most part, they’ve found that co-optation doesn’t work. For example, Markus Söder, head of the Christian Social Union and Bavarian prime minister, learned this lesson the hard way when his party experienced historic losses in the 2018 Bavarian elections. To recapture AfD voters, Söder had styled himself as an immigration hard-liner. After this strategy backfired, he embraced more moderate positions, acknowledging that the co-optation strategy led to a “political near-death experience.”

Angela Merkel’s bloc lost ground in Sunday’s election. So who won?

Co-opting far-right themes may cost votes

Academic research confirms Söder’s assessment. In our recent paper, Winston Chou, Naoki Egami, Amaney Jamal and I studied whether and how mainstream parties could win back AfD voters. We interviewed German voters for 15 months in 2016-2017 in four nationally representative surveys of about 3,000 respondents each.

We found that voters who supported the AfD were much less likely than other voters to switch to competing parties. But using an experimental approach, we also found that this loyalty could be broken. When we presented AfD voters with hypothetical centrist party candidates that favored severe immigration restrictions, up to half of the AfD’s electorate could be persuaded to vote for such candidates.

But our experimental evidence also revealed that adopting xenophobic slogans would probably lead to centrist parties losing far more of their own supporters than gaining far-right supporters. Centrist voters are turned off by candidates who impose immigration bans and espouse anti-immigrant rhetoric. And in systems where voters can choose among multiple viable parties, they are likely to abandon those that flirt with the far right.

It appears that most German politicians had come to a similar conclusion this year. To be sure, there was also plenty of immigration-specific rhetoric, including comments by the CDU’s unsuccessful chancellor candidate, Armin Laschet, that “2015 can’t happen again” — a reference to the million or so refugees entering Germany that year. But analysts also pointed out that candidates often remained vague about references to 2015.

Centrist party candidates who did run on far-right slogans this year tended to flounder. One prominent example is the CDU’s Hans-Georg Maaßen. A former head of Germany’s intelligence agency, Maaßen campaigned on a nationalist, anti-immigrant message in the eastern state of Thuringia. He came in a distant third in a race the SPD candidate won (the AfD came in second). Laschet never openly distanced himself from Maaßen, which could have cost the CDU some votes.

The center zeroed in on economic issues

The election results also showed that talking about issues voters care deeply about — but on which the far right is weak — probably contributed to the strong showing of centrist parties. In our 2016-2017 survey, a sizable share of voters said that issues such as economic inequality and pensions decided their vote. We also found that many of these voters, including AfD supporters, rated the AfD’s competence on these issues poorly. And when we presented voters with hypothetical candidates who varied in their competence and positions on economic issues, we found that candidates that highlighted pensions or increased taxes were quite popular.

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These survey findings help explain the Social Democrats’ victory. In exit polls, voters ranked these issues as most important: Economic and social security (the top issue for 28 percent of voters), the economy/employment (22 percent) and the environment/climate change (22 percent). The SPD campaign’s focus on economic issues — and combination of a centrist chancellor candidate and a left-of-center economic platform — apparently paid off. Voters who switched to the SPD — many of them former CDU voters — cited economic and social security as their most important issue.

At the same time, the SPD avoided the trap set by the AfD — it did not buy into the idea that embracing ethnic diversity is a vote loser. Instead the SPD ran a record number of candidates with immigrant backgrounds, positioning itself as an open and cosmopolitan party that can competently address issues.

Put simply, our research and the 2021 German election results suggest that centrism pays off. Despite AfD rhetoric and media coverage to the contrary, most voters in Germany — and perhaps elsewhere — don’t find harsh anti-immigrant positions appealing. Instead, a centrist stance on immigration combined with center-left economics turned out to be a winning strategy.

Professors: Check out TMC’s ever-expanding list of classroom topic guides.

Rafaela Dancygier is professor of politics and public and international affairs and director of the Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice at Princeton University. She is the author of numerous articles on immigration and party politics and has written two books on the topic, “Immigration and Conflict in Europe” (2010) and “Dilemmas of Inclusion: Muslims in European Politics” (2017).

Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/germany-e2-80-99s-far-right-party-lost-seats-in-last-week-e2-80-99s-election-here-e2-80-99s-why/ar-AAP9yKw

The post Germany’s far-right party lost seats in last week’s election. Here’s why first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Tino Chrupalla, the co-chairman of Alternative for Germany, told public broadcaster ZDF the move was in line with his party’s program, which seeks the removal of Allied troops and American nuclear warheads from German soil.

The Trump administration intends to bring about 6,400 American troops home from Germany and shift about 5,600 to other countries in Europe. The plan, which Trump has linked to Berlin’s failure to spend enough on its own military, foresees leaving about 24,000 troops in Germany.

“In my opinion this even makes Europe a bit more peaceful,” Chrupalla said in the ZDF interview broadcast Sunday.

He added the withdrawal of U.S. troops “can be a signal toward Russia.”

His comments echo those of Germany’s ex-communist Left party, which has praised the U.S. move. Both parties have close ties to Moscow, which considers the presence of U.S. troops in Europe an affront to its interests.

Chrupalla said he also favors lifting economic sanctions imposed on Russia over its 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

Alternative for Germany entered the national parliament for the first time in 2017, coming third with 12.6% of the vote. The party has recently lost traction in opinion polls amid infighting over suspected extremist links among some of its members and a surge in support for German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

Source: https://apnews.com/fe31444860e129d4d4241e93cb37bfe6

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In cooperation with the Senate Administration in the city-state of Berlin, Germany’s Ministry of the Interior just forbade the organization ‘Unified German Peoples and Tribes’ (Geeinte deutsche Völker und Stämme’) which was run by self-proclaimed ‘Citizens of the Reich’.

Rooting out extremist right-wing organizations is something the Ministry of the Interior has done for a long time. Since the latest terror attacks in Halle and Hanau, banning those groups has a higher priority. These days, right-wing extremism and terrorism pose a bigger danger than left-wing extremists. Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, a conservative, has said so.

Clear Signal

Now he forbade the next organization of this kind, ‘Geeinte deutsche Völker und Stämme’. The ministry was mainly supported by Berlin’s Interior Senator Andreas Geisel and his administration. ‘Citizens of the Reich’ neither accept the Federal Republic of Germany they live in nor its institutions, laws or its police. They pretend they live in a state like Nazi Germany which was defeated by the Allies in 1945, when fascism and the Holocaust finally ended.

On Thursday, Senator Geisel said the ban of the ‘Unified German Peoples and Tribes’ was “a clear signal to enemies of the constitution in our city and country”. Berlin would not just watch the outrageous activities of right-wing extremists or ‘Citizens of the Reich’ without taking action.

Serious Threat

“Nobody has the right to despise the institutions and our constitution or to threaten, insult or attack people”, Geisel stated. The mania those ‘Reich citizens’ were spreading were not just some crazy ideas, “but a serious threat to our democracy”. The ban had ended the activities of one of the most important groups in this spectrum, Senator Geisel said.

The banned group’s goal was to abolish the Federal Republic of Germany and to replace it by their own system of “activated communities”. Organizations of this kind are known to deny the legitimacy of the Federal Republic’s institutions along with its parliamentarism.

Police Raids

According to Andreas Geisel, the organization that was forbidden today had approximately 120 members. Its headquarters were located in Berlin. Besides, their activities in the German capital had been the focus of their activities. Police raided three objects today, where funds were confiscated and evidence was gathered. The home of the group’s leader and the association’s office were searched.

At the same time, parallel raids were conducted in Brandenburg, Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Schleswig-Holstein, Saxony, and Thuringia. According to Berlin’s Senate Administration of the Interior, the group’s image of humanity was shaped by antisemitism and conspiracy theories.

Insults and Threats

The banned group sent long pseudo-legal letters to the authorities and insulted and threatened civil service employees. Its members announced they would take over public buildings. In Berlin, there are around 670 self-proclaimed ‘Citizens of the Reich’.

Less than two months ago, in late January of 2020, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer banned the Nazi group ‘Combat 18’, an armed division of the British Nazi organization ‘Blood and Honour’. More Nazi groups are being monitored. So is the most radical wing of the right-wing extremist party ‘AfD’.

Source: https://berlinspectator.com/2020/03/19/germany-government-bans-extremist-citizens-of-the-reich-organization/

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Candles are placed around the Brothers Grimm monument during a vigil for the victims of a shooting in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Germany, Feb. 20, 2020.

Hesse’s state Premier Volker Bouffier speaks during a news conference following a shooting in Hanau near Frankfurt, Germany, Feb. 20, 2020

Prior to carrying out the attack, the 43-year-old suspected attacker published a manifesto and a video online, expressing his anti-immigrant sentiments and his hatred of Muslim countries.

The German official, who requested anonymity, added that “the problem is that we don’t only have old right-wing extremists, but now there is a new generation of lone actors.”

There has been an increase in attacks perpetrated by right-wing extremists, the official said.

In October, a gunman killed two people in Halle, Germany, after he unsuccessfully tried to enter a Jewish synagogue. Authorities said the attacker subscribed to far-right ideology.

Several months before that, a senior politician from the ruling Christian Democratic Union party was assassinated by a right-wing extremist in central Germany.

German media reported that last week a dozen extremists were arrested throughout the country for plotting to assassinate politicians and to kill immigrants.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said that far-right extremists committed 10,105 violent crimes over the last decade. German law enforcement agencies have listed more than 12,000 people as far-right extremists.

FILE – Riot police watch as far-right supporters take part in an anti-refugee rally in Dortmund, Germany, June 4, 2016. A placard in front reads, “Stop the flood of asylum seekers.”

Anti-immigrant sentiment 

Sirwan H. Berko, a Germany-based journalist whose family migrated from Syria more than two decades ago, said racism has always been present in Germany but has been more salient in recent years.

“The influx of large numbers of refugees in recent years has fueled anti-immigration sentiments among far-right extremists in Germany,” he told VOA.

Since 2015, Germany has received an estimated 1.3 million refugees, primarily Syrians fleeing their country’s civil war.

“Far-right groups now have more access to mainstream media, which enables them to spread their hateful ideology,” Berko said, adding that “racism and anti-immigrant sentiments, unfortunately, have been normalized in German politics and media.”

Far-right groups such as the Alternative for Germany Party (AfD) use immigration to mobilize young people and recruit extremists, he said.

Formed in 2014 as an anti-establishment force, the AfD adheres to a nativist ideology that is centered on anti-immigrant and anti-European integration stances. It has 89 seats in the German parliament, making it the third-largest political party in Germany.

Infiltrating state institutions 

German media have reported that far-right recruitment has been taking place among German law enforcement and the military.

FILE – Far-right Pegida demonstrators, in the background, wave flags in front of the Frauenkirche, while counterdemonstrators stand in the foreground, protesting against the far-right demonstration in Dresden, Germany, Feb. 17, 2020.

But a spokesperson for the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) told VOA in a recent interview that the military was expanding its cooperation with German security authorities and international partners to analyze links and connections of suspected right-wing extremists to try to expose them.

“There is no place whatsoever for extremists in any form, but especially right-wing extremists, in the [German military] with its over 250,000 members,” said the MAD spokesman, who insisted on anonymity.

He added that the military had taken several approaches to prevent infiltration by far-right extremists, including carrying out 16,000 security checks annually for all its applicants.

Fabian Virchow, a professor at the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf and director of the Research Unit on Right-Wing Extremism, said that many far-right groups see police and the military as attractive recruitment grounds to expand their membership and enforce their ideology.

As an example, Virchow said, the ADF has named a number of police officers as its leading personnel.

“Far-right extremists guess rightly that these two bodies are, on average, more conservative than the rest of the society. This refers mainly to the idea of law and order, which from the perception of many has been violated, especially during the crisis of the migration regime in 2015,” he told VOA in a previous interview.

According to media reports, more than 550 German soldiers have been implicated in right-wing extremism.

This “indicates that Germany’s military structures have been infiltrated by dangerous individuals with access to weapons and advanced training,” said Vera Eccarius-Kelly, a professor of political science at Siena College in New York state.

“Not enough has been done to identify and remove these xenophobic extremists from the military structures,” she told VOA.

Ezel Sahinkaya and Rikar Hussein contributed to this story from Washington.

Source: https://www.voanews.com/extremism-watch/hanau-shootings-highlight-rise-far-right-extremism-germany

The post Hanau Shootings Highlight Rise of Far-Right Extremism in Germany first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Thomas Kemmerich, a little-known liberal Free Democrat, became the first state premier elected with the support of the AfD, with whom Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats sided to the disgust of her national coalition partners.

AfD parliamentary party leader Bjoern Hoecke, right, shakes hands with Thomas Kemmerich of the Free Democrats, in Erfurt, Germany.CREDIT: AP

The CDU and all the other established parties have previously ostracised the AfD over what they say are racist views held by some of its members.

Merkel’s Social Democrat national coalition allies accused her CDU of backtracking on a pledge never to cooperate with a far-right party. The CDU rejected the accusation, saying it was not responsible for how AfD lawmakers voted. Wednesday’s ballot was secret.

“The events in Thuringia break a taboo in the history of political democracy in the Federal Republic,” SPD Finance Minister Olaf Scholz tweeted. “Very serious questions arise for us with the CDU’s federal leadership.”

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, leader of the German Christian Democrats.CREDIT: GETTY

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The amount in welfare that foreigners receive in Germany has almost doubled from 2007 to 2019, German daily Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung reported on Friday.

The figures were released as a response to a parliamentary inquiry submitted by Germany’s far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD).

Germany’s social welfare program for the long-term unemployed, known as Hartz IV, was introduced in 2005 and dispenses aid to recipients while requiring them to regularly engage with a job-center advisor and show they’re actively looking for work or enrolled in approved work-preparatory skills-training programs.

It is available to all Germans who qualify as well as other EU citizens in Germany and asylum-seekers permitted to work but unable to find employment.

In 2007, some €6.6 billion ($7.3 billion) were disbursed to non-Germans. That figure rose to €12.62 by 2019, but it was slightly lower than the €12.9 billion registered in 2018.

The rise in welfare payments coincides with a sharp increase in asylum-seekers coming to Germany in recent years. While the data published Friday compares current spending to 2007, the war in Syria, a major driver of asylum claims in Germany and migration to the country, began in 2011.

Read more: Housekeeping in Germany: ‘You clean up my mess and I pay you for it!’

Roughly €6.1 billion of welfare money given to foreigners went to people originated from the top eight asylum countries. Just under €3.6 billion went to refugees from Syria, followed by Iraqis (€840 million) and Afghans (€810 million).

By contrast, German households saw a decline in welfare payments from 2007 to 2019. This year some €22.1 billion in welfare money was disbursed to German citizens, down from roughly €30 billion in 2007.

The report also indicated that citizens from other EU countries had received a total of €2.4 billion between 2018 and 2019.

In response to the figures, AfD parliament member Rene Springer condemned the fact that more money was being spent on foreigners.

“The dramatic increase in Hartz IV expenditures for foreigners shows that the government has completely underestimated the cost and financial burden that immigration places on social programs,” Springer said.

jcg/sms (KNA, dpa)

Source:  https://www.dw.com/en/germany-welfare-payments-to-foreigners-nearly-double-over-12-years/a-51808674

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As reports about the threat of far-right recruitment among Europe’s law enforcement and military grow, German armed forces, or Bundeswehr, told VOA that they are working to keep far-right extremists away from their units or to remove them once they have been identified.

A spokesperson for the Military Counterintelligence Service (MAD) told VOA the military was expanding its cooperation with German security authorities and international partners to analyze links and connections of suspected right-wing extremists to try to expose them.

“There is no place whatsoever for extremists in any form, but especially right-wing extremists, in the Bundeswehr with its over 250,000 members,” the MAD spokesman, who did not wish to be named, said.

He said the military has taken several approaches to prevent infiltration by far-right extremists, including carrying out 16,000 security checks annually for all its applicants.

“We also take other preventive measures, aiming to encourage an improved reporting culture within the units through advisories, talks and our own publications,” the spokesperson added.

FILE – Members of the German army’s special forces secure an area while demonstrating their skills in training in Claw, near Stuttgart, July 14, 2014.

German media Sunday reported that the Bundeswehr had suspended an officer of its elite special forces, or Kommando Spezialkräfte, who had ties to right-wing elements. The Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported the officer and two other soldiers had been covertly investigated for months, which had exposed their neo-Nazi activities.

On Wednesday, outrage erupted on social media after the Bundeswehr posted on its Instagram channel a picture of a Nazi swastika uniform with the word “retro” on the top of it. Following the backlash, the Bundeswehr removed the post and apologized, saying its intention in the post was to show in the photo “a centuries-long influence of uniforms on fashion.”

VOA reached out to the German military officials for a comment on the officer’s suspension, but a Military Counterintelligence Service spokesperson said they were unable to comment on “specific operations.”

Far-right tendencies 

In recent years, some German officials and counter-extremism experts have cautioned against the rise in anti-Semitic and anti-immigration rhetoric among the country’s law enforcement following multiple reports of members showing far-right extremist tendencies.

Fabian Virchow, a professor at the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf and the director of the Research Unit on Right-Wing Extremism, told VOA that many far-right groups see police and the military as attractive recruitment grounds to expand their membership and enforce their ideology.

As an example, Virchow said, Alternative for Germany, a right-wing political party founded in 2013, has named a number of police officers as its leading personnel.

“Far-right extremists guess rightly that these two bodies are, on average, more conservative than the rest of the society. This refers mainly to the idea of law and order, which, from the perception of many, has been violated, especially during the crisis of the migration regime in 2015,” he said.

The penetration of far-right extremists and neo-Nazis into Germany’s law enforcement gained attention in April 2017, when German army officer Franco A. was accused of plotting a right-wing terror attack he seemingly hoped would be mistaken for Islamist extremism.

FILE – Soldiers of the German KSK attend an exercise close to Putgarten, Germany, Sept. 28, 2015.

The chief of MAD, Christof Gramm, recently said 20 soldiers at Kommando Spezialkräfte (KSK), the special forces command composed of soldiers selected from the Bundeswehr, are under investigation for suspicious ties to right-wing extremists.

Earlier this year, MAD admitted it had under-reported the numbers of alleged cases, saying it could be as many as 450, news magazine Der Spiegel reported. Of those cases, MAD said 64 were suspected of membership in the Identitarian movement, while another 64 were tied to Reichsbürger.

Originating in France and active in Germany since 2012, Identitarian is a right-wing movement asserting the need to preserve the “European” culture from immigrants, especially Muslim immigrants. Reichsbürger, another far-right group, does not recognize the legitimacy of the modern German state but instead believes in reviving the 1871 borders of the German empire.

Virchow, of the University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf, said the risk of radicalization in the military has been downplayed. He said many officials fear that an investigation could lead to exposing structural problems with racism in the police.

“A very urgent task to do should be a scientific investigation of to what an extent police units hold racist and anti-Semitic ideas. To make sure that the police and the military, as the two armed structures in society, stay absolutely loyal to democracy and actively defend it is key,” he said.

Transnational issue

Some experts say combating the threat of right-wing infiltration of the police will likely require collective action from European countries. They say similar reports of radicalization among law enforcement of other European countries show the issue is transnational.

FILE – This Dec. 2, 2016, photo shows the headquarters of Europol in the Netherlands.

The European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, known as Europol, concluded that violence related to right-wing extremism was rising in many EU states, according to a confidential report cited by Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung, one of the country’s main daily newspapers, in September.

The report said the groups were pursuing military and police members to boost their “combat skills.”

Daniel Koehler, the director of the German Institute in Radicalization and De-Radicalization Studies (GIRDS), told VOA that by infiltrating law enforcement and the military of European countries, right-wing groups are trying to secure a long-term power base and shield themselves against any potential future repression by their governments.

“The hope to easily connect to soldiers and police officers ideologically is not that far off, since the far right’s approach through patriotism, nationalism, anti-communism or even blatant racism and anti-Semitism, as well as a positive stance towards violence, might resonate with many others who feel attracted to serve in the military or police,” Koehler said.

He said certain European countries have taken important steps in countering this potential threat, particularly in the United Kingdom, where mandatory training is provided to officers to more easily spot far-right radicalization.

However, “a more proactive approach” to embedding the concept of countering violent extremism (CVE) — actions to thwart extremist efforts to recruit, radicalize and mobilize followers to violence — within law enforcement “should be taken,” he said.

Source: https://www.voanews.com/extremism-watch/no-place-right-wing-extremists-ranks-german-army-says

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TA picture taken on August 5, 2019, at Frankfurt am Main’s central station shows flowers that people left to pay tribute to an eight-year-old boy who died after he was pushed under a train a week earlier. The horrific crime has dominated newspaper front-pages and TV news bulletins and led politicians to call for heightened security, more camera surveillance and tighter border controls. AFP

German officials have warned of a growing threat to migrants from far-right groups that have seized on the killing of a young boy in Frankfurt last week after he was pushed in front of a train.

Grief has turned to rage across the country following the death of the 8-year-old boy who was standing on the platform with his mother. The prime suspect in the killing is an Eritrean-born father of three, leading to the incident being linked to the mass influx of refugees and migrants into Germany since 2015.

Police have, as of yet, given no motive as to why the little boy and his mother were pushed in front of the high-speed train by the 40-year-old Swiss national. While she was able to escape the path of the fast-moving train by rolling away but her son was reportedly killed instantly. a number of German politicians have said the killing in Frankfurt and other attacks have illustrated, once again, the dangers posed by mass immigration to the country.

The interior minister for Bavaria Joachim Herrmann has also said immigrants pose a danger to Germany. “You have to say that very clearly; people come to us who are much quicker to resolve conflicts by force,” Mr. Herrmann, whose party is the Bavarian counterpart to German chancellor’s Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, said. “We cannot accept everyone. That is too much for us to handle. Anyone new to the country could also bring additional risks to our country,” he added.

Meanwhile, the hard-right opposition party also sought to stoke the controversy.

“The hideousness of this act can hardly be surpassed,” the leader of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel, wrote on Twitter. She demanded at the same time that the government “finally start to protect the citizens of this country”.

It has been refugees and migrants who have borne the brunt of public anger following the death. The German regional paper the Rheinische Post reported that 50 members from the extreme-right group Brudershaft Deutschland tried to force their way into a swimming pool in Dusseldorf, more than 200 kilometers away, on Sunday to confront the mostly migrant and refugee patrons at the center.

The Brudershaft Deutschland members came to the pool from a vigil for the eight-year-old boy at Dusseldorf Station. The group, which first gained notoriety in 2017 when members were accused of breaking the country’s strict laws against Nazi imagery, was formed as a direct response to the influx of predominantly Syrian and Afghan refugees into Germany in 2015.

Police rebuffed the members of Brudershaft Deutschland from the pool but deemed no laws had been broken and no arrests were made.

Along with questions following the death of the 8-year-old in Frankfurt, Mr. Herrmann was also responding to a recent ax attack carried out by a 36-year-old Kosovan man in Dusseldorf station. Nine individuals were injured in the attack on Thursday. Police have said the man was a known paranoid schizophrenic and he has been referred to a judicial hospital for treatment. Similarly, police have emphasized that the 40-year-old suspect in the Frankfurt case had a history of mental illness.

Dr. Paul Stott of the Henry Jackson Society told The National that Germany’s immigration policy since 2015 had acted as an “adrenaline shot” for the far-right. He added that a series of criminal incidents involving migrants had also added fuel to the flames.

“Germany has had a serious of deeply contentious incidents like this in recent years since Mrs. Merkel’s unprecedented decision to open the borders to migrants in 2015. Since then, the German media and German authorities have reacted defensively to incidents of crime – including rape and murder – involving migrants,” Dr. Stott said.

“At times that defensiveness, in Cologne following trouble on New Year’s Eve 2015-216, has lapsed into dishonesty. That, and the rapid demographic change occurring in Germany has provided a stimulus to a traditionally weak far right,” he added.

In 2015 Germany’s statistics office recorded the arrival of 2.14 million immigrants to the country, the largest ever recorded arriving in the European nation. The huge influx, an increase of 36 percent from the previous year, was fuelled in part by refugees from the war in Syria. More than 298,000 Syrians arrived in Germany in 2015.

During New Year’s Eve celebrations that year hundreds of German women reported sexual assaults by men believed to be migrants, particularly in Cologne. In the aftermath, as those reports trickled down to the press, German attitudes hardened to migration and the cause was seized upon by the right to call for the closure of Germany’s borders.

Source: https://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/anti-immigrant-rage-spills-over-in-germany-following-child-murder-in-frankfurt-1.895258

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An election campaign event by Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party in Cottbus on July 13.Hannibal Hanschke / Reuters

Andreas Hollstein says he receives at least two death threats a month by mail or by phone. Though they are scary, they don’t compare to the night 18 months ago when a man approached the major of Altena, in the west of Germany, at a kebab shop.

The man asked if he was the mayor and said, “You let me die of thirst and let 200 refugees into Altena,” Hollstein recalled at the time. Then the man plunged a knife into Hollstein’s neck.

Hollstein, who ended up with a 6-inch gash, had become nationally known during the refugee crisis for welcoming migrants to his city. Authorities believed there was a political motive behind the attack and arrested a suspect.

Since then, Hollstein has been outspoken about the need to tackle right-wing extremism in Germany. Yet last month another politician who spoke out in defense of migrants, Walter Lübcke, was fatally shot in the head on the terrace of his home. A man with far-right views was arrested and confessed, though he later recanted.

Lübcke’s death reignited a debate about whether Germany, long praised for confronting the ghosts of its extremist past, is in fact doing enough to combat far-right groups in the 21st century. Like Hollstein and Lübcke, politicians and public figures in Germany who speak out about far-right extremism, migration, and anti-Semitism are often on the receiving end of both threats and violence.

According to data released in a report last month by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, there are 12,700 “violence-orientated right-wing extremists” in the country — which is more than half of the number of all right-wing extremists.

“Given the high affinity for carrying weapons in the far-right extremist spectrum, those numbers are extremely worrying,” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said in presenting the report. “The risk of an attack is high.”

The issue is especially resonant in Germany, given its Nazi past. In the decades after World War II, West Germany, in particular, pushed an education program that attempted to confront the country’s history, the Holocaust and the need for democracy. Seven decades later, far-right extremism is a topic that many thought had been vanquished, but some experts say that misperception may have led to a more lax approach than is now necessary.

“I think it is because of our Nazi past that people don’t want to recognize the threat of the far-right today,” said Anetta Kahane, who heads the anti-racism group, the Amadeu Antonio Foundation. “Like an evil child, it reminds society of other evil members of the family.”

Though the numbers in the recent report haven’t changed much since last year, the right wing’s slant toward aggression has increased, according to Kahane, who said that she receives attacks daily on social media.

“It is becoming more aggressive because they don’t feel enough resistance by the population or by the government,” Kahane said.

Her foundation has also received bomb threats, a fake anthrax letter, and a fake explosive device, and right-wing extremists entered or tried to enter the foundation with video cameras three times, according to the foundation.

“There is a direct relationship between the high amount of hatred online and people who are willing to attack others in real life,” she added.

It was precisely because of an increase in right-wing sentiment in Berlin that Ferat Kocak became active in Die Linke, a left-wing party, in 2016. But because of that activism, he believes he became a target of right-wing extremists: His car was torched in the middle of the night in January 2018 as it sat parked next to his parents’ home, where he lived at the time.

Police said there were two suspects in the attack, but investigations are ongoing and nobody had been charged.

Kocak now regularly receives emails and messages on social media from people telling him “you should have been shot,” and “you should have been burned, too.”

“I am afraid. I can’t sleep at night. When I hear noises in the middle of the night, I get up. I check behind me when I walk on the street. But I won’t stay still, I talk about it,” said Kocak, 40, who now serves as vice speaker of Die Linke in Neukölln, a borough of Berlin.

Though the official figures show that extremist sympathizers comprise a tiny part of the population, Andreas Zick, who studies extremism at the University of Bielefeld, estimates their reach is much deeper thanks to social media sites where others can watch and read about the topic.

“There has been a normalization of right-wing attitudes in society,” said Zick, who studies such attitudes in Germany. “The extreme right-wing has been more successful in creating a movement which has strong links into the middle of society.”

Zick and other experts said that normalization has been helped by the presence of the right-wing political party Alternative for Deutschland, or AfD, which has a strong anti-immigrant stance and holds 91 out of 709 seats in the German Parliament. The party has found a strong following, especially in the east.

Last month, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party ruled out any form of cooperation with the AfD, saying its rhetoric had contributed to an atmosphere of hate that encouraged political violence.

In Berlin alone, requests on how to handle threats by right-wing extremists by both individuals and organizations have roughly tripled since 2012-13, according to the organization Mobile Counselling Against Right-Wing Extremism.

“We see that the AfD in Parliament is very confident. That also gives right-wing extremists the confidence to threaten people who stand for democracy and human rights,” said Bianca Klose, who leads the organization. “That is a new development.”

For Hollstein and other politicians, the antidote to extremism is awareness. They are now pushing for greater openness and education around the issue.

“It’s not enough to make laws, but we need to educate children and parents,” said Mirjam Blumenthal, the leader of the Social Democratic Party in the Neukölln Parliament.

Two years ago, her car was also torched by right-wing extremists. She is unable to speak about more recent incidents because of ongoing police investigations.

“Our democracy is strong. But our democracy is in danger,” Blumenthal said.

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