Tense elections in both Germany and the European Parliament, the war in Gaza and increasing political polarisation and radicalisation during the past election year have contributed to a record rise in “politically motivated” crimes in Germany, the German Interior Ministry said, with a particularly sharp rise in far-right violence, on Tuesday, the 20th of May, reports Politico and Reuters.
“We will continue to fight right-wing extremism,” Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said in Berlin on Tuesday, presenting the annual report on crimes motivated by political ideology.
Overall, the number of politically motivated crimes recorded by the police increased by 40.2% to 84 172 in 2024 compared to the previous year, according to the report of the Interior Ministry. This is a record since 2001, when such data started to be collected.
Crimes attributed to right-wing ideologies accounted for the majority of all politically motivated crimes.
The number of violent political crimes increased by 15% to 4 107, the highest level since 2016. According to the report, more than one in four violent crimes were attributed to right-wing ideologies.
“Forty-five per cent of victims of politically motivated violence were injured by right-wing assailants,” Dobrindt said. He cited the attacks on gay pride marches last summer by organised groups of far-right youth as an example.
Elsewhere, police recorded an increasing number of attacks on migrants, especially after a number of high-profile car and knife attacks at public events by migrants, some of them were asylum seekers.
THE DATA ALSO SHOW AN INCREASE IN POLITICALLY MOTIVATED CRIMES COMMITTED BY THOSE ON THE FAR LEFT, ALTHOUGH SUCH CRIMES WERE MUCH MORE RARELY VIOLENT.
“The rise in political crime and violence is not just a statistical phenomenon – it reflects the polarisation and increasing radicalisation of our society and shows once again that our democracy is under pressure,” said Holger Münch, head of Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office. “We have to understand that society as a whole and some young people are shifting to the right and that there is growing acceptance of violence.”
According to Münch, the increasing radicalisation was also reflected in attacks on politicians and campaign workers; 8 034 such crimes were recorded last year.
Officials also expressed concern about the rise in anti-Semitic crimes. According to the report, 6 236 anti-Semitic crimes were recorded in 2024, an increase of almost 21% on the previous year.
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) achieved its best-ever results in the last five elections in 2024, demanding stricter immigration rules and even an exit from the EU.
Like other Western countries, Germany has been hit by tensions caused by the rise of far-right populists, economic uncertainty and growing anger, especially in immigrant communities, at the government’s support for Israel in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
The German security services recently labelled the party “right-wing extremist”, referring to cases where its members referred to naturalised citizens as “passport Germans” and linked Muslim immigrants to criminality.
Despite this, Dobrindt said there was no reason to ban the AfD. The party, currently the second largest in parliament, denies that it is a threat to democracy, says it is against violence and legally challenges the extremist label.
“To ban a party, we need evidence of an attack on the rule of law and democracy,” said Dobrindt, “and the recent assessment by the security services does not provide enough evidence of this.”