Far-right flying high

From Nazi slogans to arson

The number of politically motivated attacks on refugee shelters and migrant reception centres in Germany rose by almost a third to 218 last year.[1] The incidents range from daubing racist and sometimes Nazi slogans on shelters, smearing pig’s blood and placing pigs’ heads at the doors [2] (pigs being considered unclean in Islam, the faith of most Syrian and Afghan asylum-seekers) all the way to actual arson. An asylum-seekers’ home in Krumbach, Bavaria, for instance, was set on fire at the end of June.[3] The number of politically motivated attacks on refugees outside their accommodation remains at a high level despite a recent dip. Preliminary official statistics show that the number fell from 2,450 offences in 2023 to 1,905 in 2024. However, the 2024 statistic is expected to rise after late registrations are collated – possibly rising by a very large margin since the original figure for attacks on refugees outside their accommodation during the third quarter of 2024 had to be tripled due to late reporting.[4]

100 extreme right-wing offences per day

The increase in racist violence is also reflected in a rapid rise in offences recorded by the authorities as having an extreme right-wing motivation. The data from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) shows that the number of offences committed in 2022 (23,493) was already significantly higher than in the previous year (21,964). It then surged to 28,945 in 2023. For 2024, we only have the figure up to 30 November, but the total for offences with a right-wing extremist background again went up last year, now reaching a provisional total of 33,963. Again, the figure for 2024 will rise further, as data comes in from as yet unrecorded offences in December and from late reporting from the whole year.[5] The final figure means that around 3,000 far-right offences are now being committed in Germany every month – that comes to around a hundred per day. More than three of these are explicitly violent offences, the total number of which rose to 1,136 between January and November 2024. There were also 1,942 cases of damage to property and 5,097 cases of incitement to hatred. The largest proportion (21,311 cases) involved propaganda offences, including the dissemination of symbols of unconstitutional organisations or the dissemination of Nazi propaganda in general.

Having to flee once again

A surge in racist and far-right violence has been observed in recent weeks. Spurred on not least by the car-ramming attack on the Magdeburg Christmas market in which an anti-Muslim, and indeed self-professed AfD sympathiser, killed six people and maimed over two hundred, some of them seriously. The fact that the perpetrator was from Saudi Arabia was enough to trigger a wave of racist violence on the streets of Magdeburg. On the same evening of the attack, people across the city with a migrant background found themselves racially abused or were beaten up. This pattern was repeated again and again in the subsequent days and weeks.[6] Reports emerged of threatening letters being posted in the letterboxes of residents with a migrant background. Swastika graffiti appeared on the walls of a building housing a family who had fled Syria. A 28-year-old from Morocco was racially insulted and beaten up at a Magdeburg tram stop.[7] According to the network of migrant organisations for the state of Saxony-Anhalt, the number of attacks has risen to more than thirty in Magdeburg alone within just one month – that’s one attack per day.[8] Fear of further racist violence is driving some immigrants to make plans for moving away from the city.

‘Kebab killing’ a ‘national sport’?

Incidents of anti-Muslim racism and criminal offences targeted specifically at Muslims or Islamic institutions in Germany have been recorded at persistently high levels. The complete annual data for 2024 are not yet available. However, the number of anti-Muslim offences, which include insult and bodily harm, damage to property and incitement to hatred, reached 898 after the third quarter of 2024, with the data from late reporting still to be included.[9] In 2023, the registered number of anti-Muslim offences totalled 1,464, breaking all previous records. Of these, 1,211 (83 per cent) were found to be politically motivated from the right. Anti-Muslim offences are reported by victims to the authorities in only twelve per cent of cases. At the end of last week, the Coordination Council of Muslims in Germany (KRM) reported that “numerous mosques in Germany have had to suffer bomb threats, hate messages and property damage” over the past few weeks. One bomb threat read, “Kebab killing will become a national sport!” (referencing a seven-year long series of neo-Nazi murder spree in which migrants, some serving in kebab bars, were targeted), and added, “Gas chambers for the degenerate Palestinian people!”[10] The KRM says it “is following the latest migration policy initiatives in the Bundestag with great concern” – a trend which threatens to “lead to a further division of society.”

‘A de facto entry ban’

These “latest migration policy initiatives” mean primarily the five-point plan advanced by the CDU leader and candidate for the chancellorship, Friedrich Merz, which was put before the Bundestag on Wednesday. The motion was passed with a slim majority – 348 for and 345 against. The idea amounts to “a de facto entry ban” on anyone without valid documentation, including asylum-seekers. It also calls for all refugees who are “legally required to leave the country” to be interned in places such as “empty barracks and container camps”.[11] According to Amnesty International (AI), the hard-line policy would affect around a quarter of a million people, including children.[12] Politicians are openly looking at daily deportation flights to destinations that include Syria and Afghanistan. The mainstream has taken up demands that just a few years ago would only have been found in the repertoire of extremist right-wing organisations such as the neo-Nazi NPD. The AfD has adopted the buzzword “remigration” for its mass deportation ideas. Merz’s anti-migrant motion to parliament was the first in the history of the Bundestag to be passed with a majority dependent on approval by hard-right extremists. It has opened the floodgates to parliamentary acceptance of the far right. The immediate consequences can be seen in the boost given to the AfD, now flying even higher in the polls. While the anti-immigrant party was still polling at 18 per cent at the beginning of January, after the Merz-instigated turmoil in the Bundestag on 29 January it has climbed to between 20 and 23 per cent.[13] The extreme right is therefore enjoying an unprecedented upswing in popularity – something never seen before on this scale in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany.

[1] Mehr Angriffe auf Flüchtlingsunterkünfte. tagesschau.de 02.02.2025.

[2] Olaf Gardt, Jens Olbrich: Unbekannte beschmieren künftige Asylunterkunft mit Schweineblut. moz.de 23.09.2024.

[3] Brandanschlag auf Asylheim hat offenbar rechtsextremen Hintergrund. sueddeutsche.de 10.07.2024.

[4] Mehr Angriffe auf Flüchtlingsunterkünfte. tagesschau.de 02.02.2025.

[5] Höchststand bei rechtsextremen Straftaten. tagesschau.de 06.01.2025.

[6], [7] Polizei bestätigt weitere rassistisch motivierte Angriffe in Magdeburg. mdr.de 14.01.2025.

[8] Katharina Gebauer: „Ich fühle mich unsicher in Magdeburg“. mdr.de 24.01.2025.

[9] Antimuslimischer Rassismus. mediendienst-integration.de.

[10] Press release: KRM äußert Besorgnis über wachsende Bedrohungen gegen Moscheen und migrationspolitische Debatte im Bundestag. koordinationsrat.de 01.02.2025.

[11] „Es gilt ein faktisches Einreiseverbot“. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 27.01.2025.

[12] Deutschland: Vorschläge von CDU-Chef Friedrich Merz zu Asyl und Migration sind brandgefährlich. amnesty.de 27.01.2025.

[13] AfD und SPD legen in Umfrage leicht zu. handelsblatt.com 01.02.2025.