As of: 06/16/2022 7:33 p.m
Lower Saxony’s interior minister Pistorius presented the report for the protection of the constitution on Thursday. It now also lists the entire AfD and delegitimizers of the state as suspicious objects.
According to a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, the AfD was classified accordingly last May. Previously, in Lower Saxony, the youth organization of the AfD and the so-called wing had been classified as an object for observation – this is to be classified even higher than a suspicious object. The AfD state chairman Frank Rinck told the NDR in Lower Saxony that he considered the classification as a suspected case “a ridiculous farce” that was an election campaign maneuver. The party wants to consider legal action.
Witthaut: AfD state association has connections to right-wing extremist organizations
According to the President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Bernhard Witthaut, the former “wing” members of the party have seeped into the party structures of the AfD with their ideas and objectives. In addition, the Lower Saxony AfD regional association maintains connections to right-wing extremist organizations and protagonists. The state associations of the AfD are judged differently by the respective state authorities. For example, the Thuringian AfD is observed as a secured right-wing extremist effort.
Corona deniers and conspiracy theorists are also objects of suspicion
The second new object of suspicion is anti-democratic or security-endangering delegitimizers of the state. According to the report, these include conspiracy theorists and corona deniers. “The senseless and historically blinded hatred in this scene can always erupt in the most horrible way, as attacks and rampages in recent years have painfully demonstrated several times,” said Interior Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD). In the course of the protests against the state corona measures, a new mixed scene of corona deniers and lateral thinkers with right-wing extremists and “Reich citizens” has formed. With the increasing spread of well-known conspiracy theories, especially via social media, anti-Semitism is even more present. In some cases, certain symbols were used, especially in circles of lateral thinkers, to present themselves as victims and thus put them on a par with those who were persecuted and murdered in the Holocaust.
Greens: The Office for the Protection of the Constitution must investigate contacts between “lateral thinkers” and right-wing extremists more closely
The number of “Reich citizens” and so-called self-government fell from 1,100 in 2020 to 900 last year, but the number of right-wing extremists among them remained constant at 50. Green internal politician Marie Kollenrott said that the protection of the constitution was required to analyze the connections between the lateral thinker movement and right-wing extremism even more closely.
More than 1700 right-wing extremists in Lower Saxony
Pistorius emphasized that right-wing extremism continues to pose the greatest danger, despite a slight decrease in the number of people. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution assigns 1,730 people to right-wing extremism in Lower Saxony. This is only slightly less than last year, namely 20 people. In left-wing extremism, the number of people willing to use violence in 2021 remained largely constant at 800. In the area of Salafism, the report names 900 people – with a current slight downward trend.
Further information
