Germany is confronted with the increasing strength of far-right groups
Author: Lalla Amina Drhimeur, ERC PRIME Youth Project Researcher, and PhD candidate in political science, Hassan II School of Law, Mohammedia, Casablanca, Morocco
The attack in Hanau, Germany on Wednesday (19 February 2020), when a far-right gunman shot 9 people of migrant-origin, drew thousands into the streets to denounce racism and show solidarity with the victims and their families[i]. Investigations concluded that the act had a deeply racist motive and are trying to determine if the suspect, who had also killed his mother before putting an end to his own life, had any accomplices in Germany or abroad[ii].
But the attack happened during growing concerns about the rise of the far-right movement in the wake of Merkel's decision to open the borders to refugees and asylum seekers, mainly Muslims. Violent acts by far-right groups increased. The last one came to confront Germany with the increasing strength of xenophobia and racist groups, which seem to have found platforms to bring their ideas to the public[iii]. Nationalist-conservative and the extreme right-wing press are not only becoming mainstream but is also doing very well[iv]. The Junge Freiheit (JF, Young Freedom), for example, is a political and cultural weekly newspaper with a focus on the Identitarian movement[v]. It discusses how it is necessary for Germany to return to traditional western and Christian values to preserve national identity[vi]. In its emphasis on Christian values, positive images of Christianity are contrasted to negative images of Islam, thus enhancing the Christian identity while devaluating the Muslim ‘other’[vii]. The paper’s circulation increased very rapidly. The number of its subscribers rose from 1,000 in 2005 to 20,000 in 2014, and to 25,000 in 2016[viii]. It now claims to sell 30,000 copies each week[ix]. Majority of the readers are male (90%), wealthy, and well educated (46% have a degree)[x]. They are also supporters of PEGIDA (German acronym for ‘European Patriots against the Islamisation of the Occident’) movement[xi]. In 2014, the movement organized a march against what they call ‘the Islamisation of Germany’ and used slogans such as "Zero tolerance towards criminal asylum seekers," "Protect our homeland," and "Stop the Islamisation.”
The JF (Junge Freiheit) is not a cheap one and, in addition to its print edition, it runs a website, a YouTube channel, and social networks. The paper openly supports Alternative for Germany (Alternative für Deutschland, AfD), a right-wing populist political party founded in 2013 with an anti-euro and anti-immigration ideology and positioning itself as an anti-establishment party[xii]. It has been accumulating electoral successes and broadening its base. Through the JF, the AFD brings its ideas to the public and discusses how immigrants, mostly Turkish and North African-origin, are threatening authentic German values and are responsible for the increasing number of terrorist attacks and crime rates[xiii]. Another German paper is also gaining ground: Compact. It was established in 2010 and claims a circulation of 40,000[xiv]. It calls itself the “magazine for sovereignty”[xv] and is known for its support of France’s Front National (FN, Front Nationale)[xvi]. The paper is AfD’s unofficial organ, which once presented Frauke Petry, a former party leader, as ‘the better chancellor,’ a ‘more deserving one’ who would stop Merkel’s from handling Germany to immigrants and Muslims[xvii].
JF and Compact are joined by the Institute for National Policies (Institut für Staatspolitik), a research center that publishes the bi-monthly journal Sezession. Its researchers speak at PEGIDA rallies; organize talks and symposiums where far-right thinkers are invited[xviii]. Soon after Hanau shooting and the condemnations that have been pouring in, the AfD rejected any blame for terror attack on Wednesday claiming the party is not racist despite its anti-immigrant and anti-Islam rhetoric[xix]. On the other hand, the AfD insists on the attacker’s mental illness to protect itself from any criticism, saying the shootings were “neither right- nor left-wing terrorism” but the actions of “a madman.”[xx] The party has before campaigned in Hanau against Shisha bars portraying them as a place for crimes and gang rape[xxi]. The AfD leaders remain careful about the legality of their discourses about minorities and immigrants as Germany has strict laws against hate speeches[xxii]. Their inflammatory language, however, is full of prejudice against Muslim minorities who, according to them, have no place in Germany[xxiii]. On their part, politicians have long accused the AfD politics of normalizing hate speech, creating resentment against immigrants, and contributing to the rise of right-wing extremist violence[xxiv].
After being accused of neglecting the far-right terrorist threat for too long, the German government has started making announcements that it is taking the issue more seriously. Accusations were fueled by the ambiguous and inconsistent way German authorities had sometimes handled neo-Nazi crimes[xxv]. For example, the trial of five members of the far-right NSU (Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund or National Socialist Underground), responsible for killing nine immigrants, mostly Turkish, in the 2000s, was described as a ‘disaster of such a scale as to justify suspicions of deliberate sabotage’[xxvi]. As a matter of fact, one member was sentenced to life, and the rest was sentenced to only two and a half to 10 years, and taking account of the time they served were freed[xxvii]. Throughout the killings, authorities rejected the idea of neo-Nazi crimes and theorized the killings were personal vendettas between Turkish gangs[xxviii]. During the trial, the court restricted the proceeding to the five accused and rejected any broader context as to considering evidence of people cooperating with the NSU and helping the accused hide for 14 years[xxix]. It took authorities years to recognize the terrorist nature of the crime even though there was clear proof the group had support from other right-wing extremists indicating how Germany has long ignored reactionary terrorism[xxx].
Germany now seems to be quick to recognize the racial motives behind terrorist attacks, and Angela Merkel was also quick to condemn Hanau shooting as a racist one. The fact that the federal police have already opened a terrorist investigation marks a different stance from how the police used to handle neo-Nazi crimes when they rejected any racial interpretation of the NSU’s murders for years and assumed an individual act[xxxi]. In its fight against the rise of the far-right, the federal government decided to increase police resources and to pass stricter laws against hate speech[xxxii]. A question to be asked though: can these measures help deter xenophobic violence against immigrants in the future?
[i] « Germany shooting: chants of 'Nazis out' at vigils after gunman kills nine,» The Guardian, Fri 21 Feb 2020 04.58 GMT, last accessed Saturday 22 Feb 2020 13.45 GMT, available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/21/germany-shooting-chants-of-nazis-out-at-vigils-after-gunman-kills-nine
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] « The press of the right », Le Monde Diplomatique, August 2017, last accessed Saturday 22 Feb 2020 10.03 GMT, available at https://mondediplo.com/2017/08/07press
[iv] Ibid.
[v] Samuel Salzborn, «Renaissance Of The New Right In Germany? A Discussion of New Right Elements in German Right-wing Extremism Today », German Politics and Society, Issue 119 Vol. 34, No. 2 (Summer 2016): 36–63 doi:10.3167/gps.2016.340203 • ISSN 1045-0300 (Print) • ISSN 1558-5441 (Online
[vi] Andrea Althoff, «Right-wing populism and religion in Germany: Conservative Christians and the Alternative for Germany (AfD),» Z Religion Ges Polit (2018) 2:335–363, https://doi.org/10.1007/s41682-018-0027-9
[vii] Ibid.
[viii] «The press of the right », Le Monde Diplomatique
[ix] Ibid.
[x] Ibid.
[xi] Ibid.
[xii] Samuel Salzborn, « Renaissance Of The New Right In Germany? A Discussion of New Right Elements in German Right-wing Extremism Today », German Politics and Society
[xiii] « The press of the right », Le Monde Diplomatique
[xiv] Ibid.
[xv] « Germany’s right-wing news sites pose challenge to traditional media,» Financial Times, September 9, 2018, last accessed Saturday 22 Feb 2020 15.14 GMT, available at: https://www.ft.com/content/a4c560ae-ab9b-11e8-89a1-e5de165fa619
[xvi] « The press of the right,» Le Monde Diplomatique
[xvii] « Frauke Petry: the acceptable face of Germany’s new right? », The Guardian, Sun 19 Jun 2016 09.30 BST, last accessed Saturday 22 Feb 2020 15.14 GMT, available at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/19/frauke-petry-acceptable-face-of-germany-new-right-interview
[xviii] « The press of the right,» Le Monde Diplomatique
[xix] « Hanau shooting: Why Germany’s far-right AfD is blamed over racist violence », BBC, Saturday 22 Feb 2020 12 :00 GMT, last accessed Saturday 22 Feb 2020 16.19 GMT, available at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51588602
[xx] « Germany shooting: chants of 'Nazis out' at vigils after gunman kills nine », The Guardian
[xxi] «‘Not a Classical Neo-Nazi’: What We Know About the German Hookah Bar Terrorist », Vice News, Feb 20, 2020, 5:37pm, last accessed Saturday 22 Feb 2020 19.31 GMT, available at: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/n7jdak/race-hate-mind-control-and-incel-ideology-what-we-know-about-the-german-hookah-bar-shooter
[xxii] « Hanau shooting: Why Germany’s far-right AfD is blamed over racist violence », BBC,
[xxiii] Ibid. [xxiv] Ibid.
[xxv] « Germany's collusion problem,» Le Monde Diplomatique, July 2019, last accessed Saturday 22 Feb 2020 10.17 GMT available at: https://mondediplo.com/2019/07/09germany
[xxvi] Cited in « Germany’s collusion problem », Le Monde Diplomatique,
[xxvii] « Germany’s collusion problem », Le Monde Diplomatique, [xxviii] «10 Murders, 3 Nazis, And Germany’s Moment Of Reckoning », Foreign Policy, March 16, 2017, last accessed Saturday 22 Feb 2020 18.30 GMT available at: https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/03/16/10-murders-3-nazis-and-germanys-moment-of-reckoning/
[xxix] « Germany’s collusion problem », Le Monde Diplomatique
[xxx] «10 Murders, 3 Nazis, And Germany’s Moment Of Reckoning », Foreign Policy
[xxxi] « Germany Has a Neo-Nazi Terrorism Epidemic »,Foreign Policy, JULY 2, 2019, 5:32 P.M. last accessed Saturday 22 Feb 2020 18.30 GMT available at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/20/hanau-shooting-germany-far-right-violence-neo-nazi?fbclid=IwAR09TLFrBnDyyL8VJZOvrt_qYQeRXU77yfAcJi6F0PLeYFhGojc0VnMll-I
[xxxii] «In Germany, the federal public prosecutor's office takes over the investigation into the Hanau attacks » (En Allemagne, le parquet fédéral se saisit de l’enquête sur les attentats de Hanau), Le Monde, 20 February 2020 14.10, last accessed Saturday 22 Feb 2020 19.55GMT available at: https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2020/02/20/allemagne-au-moins-huit-morts-dans-deux-fusillades-a-hanau_6030139_3210.html