For the time being, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution does not provide any figures on “lateral thinkers”
For the time being, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution does not provide any figures on “lateral thinkers”
The protection of the constitution wants to hold back with quantitative assessments of the scene of radical corona deniers and conspiracy believers. Findings about this scene are, however, compiled in a different way and “made available for use by the authorities”.
The Ministry of the Interior explains that the next report does not plan to mention the potential of a person to the new object under observation, “delegitimization of the state relevant to the protection of the constitution”, as the protection of the constitution calls radical corona deniers and conspiracy believers. It gives two reasons.
D.The Office for the Protection of the Constitution is holding back with quantitative assessments of the scene of radical corona deniers and conspiracy believers. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior of the German Press Agency said that the constitutional protection report did not plan to name the potential of the new object under observation, “delegitimization of the state relevant to the protection of the constitution”.
“The period to be taken into account for this observation object in the current reporting year and the pronounced heterogeneity of the scene do not yet allow any reliable statements according to the standards of the Constitutional Protection Report this year,” it said as a justification. The knowledge about this scene would, however, be compiled in a different way “and made available for use by the authorities”.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution had at the end of April identified a new phenomenon with the name “delegitimization of the state relevant to the protection of the constitution”. At that time it was said that the actors and groups that were assigned to this area propagated the ignoring of official orders, they denied the state monopoly on the use of force, and that “conspiracy myths such as QAnon or other anti-Semitic resentments” were used. The authority announced: “The collective observation object enables both a processing as a suspected case and as a proven extremist endeavor.”
According to information from security circles, some initiators of the “lateral thinking” movement who were relevant at the beginning of the corona pandemic have now withdrawn or moved abroad. At the same time, other actors, including well-known right-wing extremists, appeared on the scene. Experts expect that part of the corona denier scene will continue to be active even after the end of the pandemic and make state institutions contemptible.
In November 2016, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution introduced the very decentralized “Reich Citizens and Self-Administrators” as a new collective observation object. This category includes people who do not recognize the Federal Republic of Germany and its legal system – some of them are considered right-wing extremists. in the Constitutional Protection Report 2016, which was created in the first half of 2017, the domestic intelligence service estimated the potential of 10,000 members and followers.