How the far-right has grown into the greatest extremist threat to Germany’s democracy
“We must never underestimate the murderous danger posed by right-wing extremism and right-wing terrorism.” That’s the warning from Germany’s interior minister as new figures show a rise in violent extremists in the country.
A report today by intelligence officials estimates 14,000 violent right-wing extremists are living in Germany.
It labels the far-right the biggest extremist danger inside Europe’s largest economic power.
Right-wing extremism continues to be “the greatest extremist threat to the basic democratic order,” interior minister, Nancy Faeser told journalists as she unveiled the report alongside domestic spy chief, Thomas Haldenwang, in Berlin.
Violence from right and left-wing extremists, Islamist terrorists and foreign extremists were among the dangers assessed.
The report found the number of right-wing extremists has risen to 38,800 in 2022, from 33,900 the previous year.
Just over a third of them are classed as “violence-oriented”.
Violent crimes committed by this group are also up 7.5% and include two attempted homicides.
“Extremists use crises to gain a foothold in the middle classes, sharing conspiracy myths, disinformation and propaganda,” says Mr Haldenwang, president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
“It is worrying that the actors are becoming increasingly violence-orientated and in some cases younger.”
Victims of far-right intimidation agree.
‘I regularly received life-threatening emails’
Suleman Malik, a spokesperson from the Ahmadiyya Islamic community in Erfurt, East Germany, shows me the mosque they have been trying to build for around a decade.
He says he has received death threats and contractors have been scared away by extremists who warned them not to work with Muslims.
On one occasion, he says he arrived at the construction site to find a pig’s head on a stake and pork scattered around.
“We were attacked, I regularly received life-threatening emails….there were letters. There were attacks on the site. They just wanted to harm us,” he says.
While right-wing extremists come from a mixture of groups, there’s a new focus on the so-called “Reichsburger” after authorities foiled a coup plot planning to violently overthrow the government.
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Twenty-five people were arrested in raids in December accused of plotting to storm the German parliament and take control.
“Reichsburger”, which translates to citizen of the Reich, are defined by spy agencies as conspiracy theorists who don’t recognise the legitimacy of the post-war German state.
In 2022, the number of extremist crimes attributed to “Reichsburger” and “Selbstverwalter” (“self-governing citizens”) increased by 34.3%, with violent offences up 55.4% including two attempted homicides.
In total, it’s believed 23,000 “Reichsburger” live in Germany as part of different organisations.
The ‘King’ who wants to overthrow the government
Around two hours’ drive from Berlin is the headquarters of the “Kingdom of Germany”, one of the groups being monitored.
A sign on the fence reading ‘Kingdom of Germany’
Set up around a decade ago, the “Kingdom” is a self-proclaimed independent state with its own self-appointed king.
On the day I arrive to interview King Peter I, I’m given a visa to allow me to cross the invisible border.
A charismatic figure with a long brown ponytail, King Peter confirms I should call him “Your Majesty”.
He explains that the group has their own IDs, passports, banking system and currency. He shows me the constitution which the 5,500 members live by bound in a neat cream-coloured book.
While King Peter does not class his followers as “Reichsburger”, he is clear that they do not recognise the elected government.
“That is the goal, to completely take over the power of government in Germany, so to speak,” he says.
“But only if the people want it. If they don’t want it, then let them keep what they seem to be happy with.”
King Peter likes to be called ‘Your Majesty’
‘It could have led to a bloodbath’
As the kingdom’s membership expands, their efforts to buy more land around Germany has also caught the attention of the authorities.
While some critics accuse them of trying to infiltrate society, they were not part of the group arrested in December and King Peter rejects the idea anyone in the Kingdom would support the use of violence.
“Are you a threat?” I ask. He says they’re not but adds “We are perhaps a threat to the system, because we want to create the common good, because we want to create freedom…and we question the instruments of domination that we have today…we question this legal system of the Federal Republic because it is a system of domination and not a system of freedom.”
While “Reichsburger” groups have often been dismissed as crackpots, December’s failed coup plot shows that they are a danger to be taken seriously and a major concern for the domestic spy chief.
Around 10% (2300) are believed to be violent.
“The Reichsburger plot in December 2022 could have led to a bloodbath at the Bundestag,” says Nicholas Potter, a journalist and researcher at the Amadeu Antonio Foundation in Berlin which monitors right-wing extremism, racism and antisemitism.
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“The reality shows that the Reichsburger ideology is ultra-nationalist, antisemitic and driven by far-right conspiracy myths – and that it frequently results in violence, shootouts with authorities, or recently, plots to kidnap ministers or storm the Bundestag.”
But it’s not just fringe groups being watched.
The far-right party “Alternative for Germany” (AfD) has 78 seats in parliament and is soaring in popularity.
According to a recent poll by German newspaper BILD, the AFD has become the second strongest political force in Germany together with the ruling Social Democrats.
It found 19.5% of respondents support the party and that 28.5% of Germans could imagine voting for them.
According to domestic intelligence chief, Thomas Haldenwang, his office will take a closer look at the AfD in 2023 because of a progressive radicalisation with more than 10,000 members classed as right-wing extremists.
Passports of the Kingdom of Germany
The party is now under surveillance as a “suspected threat” because of their far-right ideology while their youth organisation, the “Junge Alternative” (“Young Alternative”), was classified as a right-wing extremist group at the end of April 2023.
Both reject the allegations.
“The surge in support for the AfD is highly alarming,” Mr Potter says. “Since it initially entered the Bundestag in 2017, the party has continued to veer to the hard right, with its comparatively more moderate members leaving.
“The crises of previous years, from the COVID pandemic to Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ensuing energy crises, have given the AfD new opportunities to play on fear and spread hate.”
Currency and a savings book of the Kingdom of Germany
‘We are the opposite of dangerous’
At a rally in Erfurt, Bjorn Hocke, the AfD’s regional leader in Thuringia and influential figure on the party’s hard right disagrees.
Mr Hocke has recently been charged over his alleged use of the Nazis’ SA stormtrooper slogan in a speech in 2021.
He denies he and his party are a risk to security in Germany.
“We are the opposite of dangerous, and we do not divide society…. We want to preserve Germany, that is our mission,” Mr Hocke says. “The other parties want to more or less overcome Germany, to abolish it, and we don’t want that. And that is a normal reaction of a people that wants to have a future.”
But opponents are increasingly concerned by their growing popularity among the middle classes.
Around the corner from the AfD rally, left-wing supporters have launched a counter protest.
Bjorn Hocke of the Alternative for Germany party
They are holding up signs and banners reading “Against Neo-Nazis” or “No room for fascists”.
A group of women calling themselves “Grannies against the Right” are holding placards saying “Bjorn Hocke is a Nazi”.
Loki, a left-wing activist, says right-wing ideology has divided her family.
Her relationship with her father has broken down. She believes the rise of the right is splitting her country in two.
“We have to take action now, we have to defend democracy here”, she says, beginning to cry.
Israeli strikes killed at least 85 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip overnight and into Thursday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Five UN staff members have also been killed, according to the head of the UNRWA.
It comes as fighting in the enclave has restarted in recent days.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, the United Nations Palestinian relief agency, said on Thursday: “In the past few days, another five UNRWA staff have been confirmed killed, bringing the death toll to 284.
“They were teachers, doctors and nurses: serving the most vulnerable.”
He added he feared “the worst is yet to come”.
“Under our daily watch, people in Gaza are again and again going through their worst nightmare,” he said in a statement.
“An endless unleashing of the most inhumane ordeals.”
Speaking in Parliament, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said the UK government opposed the resumption of Israel’s hostilities and added that a British national was among the wounded when a UN compound was struck on Wednesday.
Israel has previously said it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because it operates in densely populated areas.
It denied previous reports it had targeted a UN compound.
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Briton wounded in Israeli strike
Israel resumes strikes
On Tuesday, Israel resumed heavy airstrikes on the enclave killing more than 400 people, bringing to a halt the ceasefire that had paused fighting in the 17-month war.
A day later, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) relaunched ground operations, seizing part of a key corridor that divides the north and south of Gaza – the Netzarim corridor.
On Thursday, the IDF said it had begun a ground operation in northern Gaza.
Meanwhile, Hamas fired three rockets at Israel without causing casualties.
It was the first such attack since the resumption of the IDF’s strikes.
Palestinians mourn loved ones killed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis. Pic: Reuters
Hospitals across Gaza said the strikes hit houses in Khan Younis and Rafah in southern Gaza and the northern town of Beit Lahiya.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Pic: Reuters
The European Hospital in Rafah said 26 people, mostly women and children, had been killed in strikes on two family homes overnight.
A father and his seven children were killed in one of the attacks, it added.
The Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis received the bodies of seven people killed overnight in an attack on a home, it said.
A child looks on as Palestinians inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house, in Khan Younis. Pic: Reuters
Meanwhile, Hamas said talks with mediators were ongoing.
Fragile ceasefire
Hamas and Israel disagreed over how to proceed with the ceasefire after phase one came to an end.
The militant group wanted to move onto phase two to negotiate Israel’s permanent withdrawal from Gaza, the release of hostages in exchange for more prisoners and an eventual end to the war.
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A man sits amid rubble in Khan Younis. Pic: Reuters/Hatem Khaled
Israel wanted to temporarily extend phase one and for more hostages to be released.
It cut off all supplies to Gaza to try and pressure the group into doing so before restarting its military campaign.
The war started after Hamas militants attacked Israeli communities in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages.
More than 49,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ensuing conflict, according to Gaza’s health authorities,
The tone has changed totally. It’s a remarkable turnaround from the Oval Office meltdown to the perfect phone call.
President Trump is wholly transactional. His desire for give and take far outweighs any ideological instincts. He has no particular alignment to Ukraine or, for that matter, to Russia.
He just wants a deal. Peace would stop the killing as he has said repeatedly. It would also allow for deals which can benefit America: recouping the taxpayer money spent on Ukraine and reconnecting the American economy with Russia.
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Will Trump turn on Putin?
But trumping all that is his legacy and his image. He wants to be seen as the peacemaker president.
Since the Oval Office moment, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy seems now to have recognised all that.
Ukraine’s approach towards Trump has changed. Zelenskyy is now playing his game: transactionalism.
The minerals deal hasn’t dissolved. The indications I am getting is that it’s essentially been upgraded and broadened to a wider scope: fuller economic cooperation.
Zelenskyy needs to encourage America deep into his country economically. Has he bought into the idea that a US economic footprint amounts to a key part of a security guarantee?
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The old adage is: “If you are not at the table, you are on the menu.” That’s too true with President Trump.
Zelenskyy now feels like he’s at the table and I am told he doesn’t feel coerced.
The challenges remain huge though: he doesn’t trust Putin. That’s what he tried to tell President Trump in the Oval Office. The performance that day proved to him that Trump is inclined to trust Putin.
Zelenskyy must use transactionalism to draw an impatient Trump in.
President Trump is in a hurry for a deal. He’s inclined to accept wholly disingenuous commitments from Russia, or as one source put it to me: “Trump has a high tolerance for bullshit…”
That’s the jeopardy for Zelenskyy.
World
Donald Trump has ‘very good’ call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which he discusses US ownership of Ukrainian energy plants
US President Donald Trump has had a “very good” call with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the White House says, during which US ownership of Ukraine’s energy network was discussed to help protect it.
Mr Trump also agreed to “help locate” additional air defence support in Europe after a request from the Ukrainian leader, a statement about the one-hour phone call said.
Further talks will take place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in the coming days, and the US will continue intelligence sharing with Ukraine, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.
Mr Trump also agreed to work to ensure missing Ukrainian children are returned home and both parties agreed to a temporary 30-day ceasefire involving attacks against energy facilities, with the US president saying the US “could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise”, Ms Leavitt said.
Secretary of state Marco Rubio also issued a statement about the call saying that “President Trump also discussed Ukraine’s electrical supply and nuclear power plants.
“He said that the United States could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise. American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure.”
The White House statement added that Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy also reviewed the situation in Kursk and agreed to share information closely.
The presidents instructed their teams to move ahead with the details of implementing a partial ceasefire, with discussions to include expanding any ceasefire to the Black Sea.
“We have never been closer to peace,” Ms Leavitt added.
In comments later on Wednesday, Mr Zelenskyy said that Mr Trump understands that Ukraine will not recognise occupied land as Russian, and that he would like the US president to visit Ukraine – adding that “it would be helpful for Trump in his peace efforts”.
In an earlier statement, President Zelenskyy said the two leaders had “a positive, very substantive and frank conversation”.
Mr Zelenskyy echoed much of Mr Trump’s statement about what was decided, and said later that he “felt no pressure” from the US president.
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Trump and Zelenskyy ‘on track’
“We agreed that Ukraine and the United States should continue working together to achieve a real end to the war and lasting peace. We believe that together with America, with President Trump, and under American leadership, lasting peace can be achieved this year,” Mr Zelenskyy said
He added that Ukraine would “continue working to make this happen”.
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“I stressed that Ukrainians want peace, which is why Ukraine accepted the proposal for an unconditional ceasefire,” he said. “I highlighted the importance of President Trump’s concept of peace through strength. We agreed to maintain constant contact, including at the highest level and through our teams.”
In an earlier post on Truth Social, Mr Trump said the “very good” phone call lasted around one hour.
Read more:
A timeline of Trump and Zelenskyy’s relationship
What could be the future of Ukraine?
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“Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs,” Mr Trump said.
“We are very much on track,” he added.
The call marks the first time Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy have spoken since the disastrous confrontation in the White House last month.
Mr Zelenskyy travelled to Washington expecting to sign a critical minerals deal but left early after he and Trump clashed in front of the world’s cameras.
On Tuesday, Mr Trump and Vladimir Putin held a phone call lasting about an hour and a half in which the Russian leader rejected a full 30-day ceasefire.
He agreed to not attack Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for 30 days. The two countries also swapped 175 prisoners each earlier this morning.
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