Figures from the federal states: Right-wing violence reaches its highest stage since 2016 | EUROtoday

The police in Germany found extra right-wing violent acts final yr than at any time since 2016. This emerges from a response from the federal authorities to a request from the left-wing faction, which was submitted to the German Press Agency. The federal states then reported a complete of 1,598 such acts to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) for 2025 by the deadline of January 31, 2026. In most circumstances, the investigation was primarily based on bodily hurt or grievous bodily hurt.

According to the data, the federal states counted 1,488 right-wing violent acts within the earlier yr. In 2023, the police turned conscious of 1,270 violent acts with a right-wing background.

Sometimes the motive is just acknowledged later

The variety of offenses for the earlier yr should still change because of late studies. This is just not solely as a result of the studies first must be despatched from the states to the BKA, but in addition as a result of the political motivation generally solely turns into obvious later.

If you have a look at all right-wing motivated crimes that have been recorded in 2025, you’ll be able to see a slight lower – from 42,788 to 42,544 right-wing motivated crimes.

Typical politically motivated crimes embrace denigration of the state and its symbols, sedition or insults. Violent crimes embrace murder, bodily hurt, breach of the peace, harmful interference with street visitors, deprivation of liberty and resistance crimes.

Relatively talking, there are significantly many right-wing acts of violence within the East

In relation to the variety of inhabitants, in 2025, no different federal state detected as many right-wing motivated crimes by the police as in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. As the federal authorities tells the Left Party, citing information reported by the states, it counted 145 such acts per 100,000 inhabitants in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania final yr.

For Saxony-Anhalt, the police decided a frequency of 142 right-wing crimes per 100,000 inhabitants. In Brandenburg it was virtually as excessive at 139, nicely above the nationwide common of 51 right-wing crimes per 100,000 inhabitants. Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg had the bottom frequency figures final yr, with 28 offenses every.

Intensity of the investigation performs a task

It ought to be famous, nevertheless, that the statistics additionally present how intensively the police in a federal state examine suspected politically motivated crimes.

The safety authorities on the time attributed the truth that Brandenburg recorded a very excessive variety of such crimes in 2024 to “the increasing brutalization and brutalization of the political debate in our country” and the rise in politically motivated crimes within the context of the state elections.

Example of right-wing violence: “Last wave of defense”

The acts of violence listed by the Federal Ministry of the Interior for the previous yr additionally embrace a case of significantly critical arson. It is alleged to be the work of a gaggle of right-wing extremists, a few of whom are very younger, who name themselves the “Last Defense Wave”.

In an assault on an asylum seekers’ lodging in Schmölln, Thuringia, in January 2025, two members of the group are stated to have tried in useless to set the constructing on fireplace utilizing pyrotechnics. They are stated to have left, amongst different issues, swastikas and slogans corresponding to “Foreigners out” on the lodging. In December, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office filed costs towards the accused on the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court in Hamburg.

The left-wing faction criticizes the federal government’s dealing with of right-wing violence

Ferat Kocak, home politician for the Left Party, accuses the federal authorities of not responding appropriately to the worrying growth within the space of ​​right-wing violence. “At least four cases could have ended fatally last year,” says the Bundestag member from Berlin.

The federal authorities is denying the menace and, on the similar time, is constructing on the deliberate cuts to the “Living Democracy!” program. exactly the prevention and training initiatives that might counteract this menace.

The program “Live Democracy!” has been supporting initiatives for democracy and to defend towards extremism, racism and anti-Semitism since 2014. This yr round 190 million euros can be found.

Federal Family Minister Karin Prien (CDU) has introduced that funding for round 200 of a complete of a number of hundred initiatives will expire on the finish of the yr. Criticism was expressed not solely by the Greens and the Left, but in addition by the coalition companion SPD. Activists and staff of initiatives in East German cities with a dominant right-wing scene particularly really feel let down.