Protests against corona measures: what can be done against the aggression?

Pepper spray in Reutlingen, attacks on reporters in Leipzig, or targeted threats against politicians. Some opponents of the corona measures are becoming more and more aggressive. Politics is challenged. But how?

Britta Haßelmann is worried. Since the corona pandemic, one has known about the “reach of right-wing networks, right-wing structures and connections between unconventional thinkers and the corona denier scene”. That is worrying. So much for the description of the new Green Group leader. Her solution? The strategies against right-wing extremism in society must be further developed and hatred and agitation on the Internet must be combated.

When asked how the increasing aggressiveness in the pandemic should be countered, the new Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann replied something very similar: In society it is important that these things are not accepted without being contradicted. “If criminal laws are violated, there has to be a clear answer. And many of these phenomena already violate current criminal law,” said the FDP politician. The necessary laws exist, you just have to enforce them.

Telegram is barely tangible

But that is exactly what is not so easy in practice. Example: Telegram. Corona deniers and extremists also exchange information via the app. The Federal Office of Justice has already written to the operator several times and threatened fines of millions. A response from Telegram is pending. The company is officially based in the United Arab Emirates.

CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt warns the traffic light coalition not to give up. He does not want to resign himself to the fact that a company which is registered “somewhere in the Arab region” ensures that “hatred and agitation takes place on cell phones and in living rooms in Germany and Europe. The legal framework must now be created for this. ”

Switching off the app is technically and legally difficult to do. And even if the German authorities succeed in restricting communication channels – it does not combat the causes of radicalization.

Protests against corona measures just put forward?

The most recent protests are ostensibly directed against the state’s approach to the corona pandemic. In particular against a general compulsory vaccination. But Lower Saxony’s Minister of the Interior Boris Pistorius thinks this is just a pretext. “Those who allow themselves to be driven into radicalization by compulsory vaccinations would have radicalized themselves as well,” said the SPD politician NDR.

This type of person takes every topic, be it the GEZ or at that time Pegida’s supposed Islamization of the West or other nonsense. These are people who allow themselves to be driven into radicalization by everything else.

According to Pistorius’ assessment, it is about a rejection of the state as a whole. It is a very small group, including citizens of the Reich and right-wing extremists. There could be no question of a split in society.

The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been observing the radicalization of the corona protests for a long time. For about nine months it has had its own name: “Constitutional protection-relevant delegitimization of the state.”

Trust in the state is to be shaken

For the followers of the scene, it is a question of permanently shaking trust in state institutions and their representatives. This does not have to have anything to do with mandatory vaccinations, mask regulations or government controls.

Observing extremists, consistently pursuing criminal offenses online, contradicting them publicly – these are the recipes of politics against the increasing radicalization of the pandemic protests. In their coalition agreement, the SPD, the Greens and the FDP have also agreed to give long-term support to clubs and initiatives against extremism.

In the past few years, the so-called Democracy Promotion Act had failed due to opposition from the Union. CSU regional group chief Dobrindt left it open whether the CDU and CSU support a new start of the traffic light.