Status: 02/13/2022 11:51 a.m
Interior Minister Faeser wants to take decisive action against hatred and hate speech – she is planning an action plan against right-wing extremism. In addition, March 11 is to become the German “Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorist Violence”.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) wants to take tough measures and an action plan against right-wing extremists. “The rule of law must be able to defend itself,” said the SPD politician to the “Bild am Sonntag” newspaper.
“At the moment, right-wing extremism is the greatest danger to democracy – with its murderous attacks in Halle and Hanau, on Walter Lübcke, from the NSU. Too many have downplayed this danger for years,” Faeser told the newspaper.
Dry up financial flows, withdraw weapons
“We are doing everything we can to dry up the breeding ground for right-wing extremist violence by taking very decisive action against hate and hate speech.” The Ministry of the Interior will monitor the extremists’ financial flows and very consistently withdraw their weapons. This also includes a further tightening of gun laws.
Any kind of extremism
As interior minister, she fights every kind of extremism – right, left, Islamist. Faeser therefore does not want to allow any tolerance for hate and hate speech: “That applies completely regardless of which corner it comes from.” According to the minister, anyone who attacks other people, regardless of whether they are police officers, politicians or passers-by, has crossed the line of legal and legitimate protest. The rule of law must have a zero-tolerance strategy.
The interior minister also showed no understanding for the actions of climate activists who block motorways or get stuck on the asphalt: “Anyone who blocks rescue routes, as we have seen now, is putting human lives at risk. I reject any form of violence, intimidation, coercion completely off.”
National Memorial Day on March 11th
According to media reports, the federal government in Germany also wants to introduce a national day of remembrance for victims of terrorist violence, on March 11th. This emerges from a cabinet draft by Faeser, which is available to the news portal “ThePioneer” and is also to be decided next Wednesday, according to the dpa news agency.
The date ties in with the European Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Terrorism, which was launched after the Islamist bombings in Madrid on March 11, 2004. At that time 191 people died. The day of remembrance was first observed in 2005.
The situation of those affected should thus be further brought into focus, according to the report in the document. Dealing with them must be “even more empathetic and dignified”. According to the Ministry of the Interior, mourning flags are to be displayed on federal government buildings throughout Germany on the commemoration day.