Politically motivated crimes in Germany, which have been tracked for more than 20 years, reached their highest-ever level in 2023, the news agency Associated Press reported on Tuesday (May 21) citing the Federal Criminal Police Office. In total, Germany recorded 60,028 politically motivated crimes in 2023.
The report said that right-wing politically motivated crimes increased by 23 percent in 2023 to 28,945 cases, of which 1,270 were violent. Left-wing crimes increased by 11 percent to 7,777, of which 916 were violent.
On Tuesday, Federal Criminal Police Office’s President Holger Münch said that politically motivated criminality almost doubled within the last decade and continued to rise. “Parts of the population are tending towards radicalization. These tendencies include attempts to delegitimize the state and its monopoly on violence,” Münch added.
‘Our democracy is under pressure’
On May 4, Matthias Ecke, a candidate from Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats was attacked while campaigning for a seat in the European Parliament. Authorities believe that the four men arrested in connection with the attack were motivated by right-wing beliefs. Ecke suffered severe injuries.
A few days after this attack, a 74-year-old man with a history of mental illness assaulted Berlin’s top economic official, who sustained minor injuries.
Addressing a press conference, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said that Germany was a strong democracy, but its “democracy was under pressure. ”
Drastic rise in antisemitic crimes
There has also been a drastic rise in crimes designated as antisemitic to the highest level since tracking began. According to Holger Münch, such crimes doubled last year to 5,164. This increase is related to the Israel-Hamas war which started in October last year, the top security official added.
Hate crimes in the country, increased by about 48% last year to 17,000, and crimes against asylum seekers increased by 75 percent, both Münch and Faeser said.
The article originally appeared on WION.