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 constitution of the ‘Kingdom of Germany’
Far-right party’s popularity soars
“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.
World
Inter-Arab security force should be set up ‘within weeks’ to stop Hamas retaking Gaza, ex-Israeli PM says
An inter-Arab security force should be set up in Gaza within weeks to prevent Hamas from retaking control, Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Barak has said.
Asked by Sky News chief presenter Mark Austin if intervention was necessary to prevent Hamas from filling the current power vacuum inside the Strip, Mr Barak said he believed a force was needed, but it should not be international.
“An inter-Arab force should be there in a few weeks, not several months,” he said, warning that the group’s readiness to give up its arms will decrease over time.
Mr Barak also said the “only condition for success” in the ceasefire plan for Gaza was the “determination” of Donald Trump.
He said there were concerns that the US president “might lose his attention to the issue” and that his plan to bring the war to a conclusion “will take time”.
“It cannot happen overnight. But the zeitgeist, the atmosphere in the world and the pressure on both sides to find a solution is created in front of our eyes. So it’s very promising.”
Follow the latest updates from Gaza
A Hamas militant stands guard as a Red Cross vehicle arrives to receive the bodies of deceased hostages. Pic: Reuters
However, he said the war with Hamas over the last few months has harmed Israel’s international reputation, and it would take time to fix that damage.
“It’s killed our positioning in the world,” he said. “It’s huge damage. It will take probably a generation to correct it.
“It created a feeling in the world that Israel probably executed war crimes.”
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Palestinians walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza City. Pic: Reuters
According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, nearly 68,000 Palestinians have been killed since the war began in 2023 – when more than 1,200 people were killed and more than 250 people were taken hostage during Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.
The Hamas-run ministry does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its count, but says half of that number were women and children.
The war has also flattened huge swathes of Gaza and left nearly 170,000 people wounded, according to the ministry.
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‘If Hamas doesn’t disarm, we will disarm them’
Palestinian state ‘only sustainable’ solution
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “turned Hamas’ military defeat a year ago into an unprecedented diplomatic and political success and brought back the Palestinian issue,” Mr Barak said.
His comments refer to the creation of a Palestinian state, which he said was “the only sustainable” solution.
“Any other solution will break,” Mr Barak said. “And it’s not because we have special sentiments to the lives of the Palestinians, it’s because of our own interests.”
“Israel has a compelling imperative to separate from the Palestinians. If there is only one entity reigning over this whole area, namely Israel, it will become inevitably either non-Jewish or non-democratic.”
Calls for Hamas to disarm
It comes after aid trucks rolled into Gaza following a dispute over the return of the bodies of dead hostages that threatened Israel’s nascent ceasefire deal with Hamas.
Israel has threatened to reduce aid supplies because Hamas was returning bodies too slowly.
The militant group returned four bodies confirmed as dead hostages on Monday, as well as another four late on Tuesday, but Israeli authorities have said one of those bodies was not that of a hostage.
Several other issues are yet to be resolved, with later phases of the truce plan calling for Hamas to disarm and give up power, which it has so far refused to do.
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump appeared to threaten Hamas over the issue, telling a press conference: “If Hamas doesn’t disarm, we will disarm them – perhaps violently.”
Meanwhile, Hamas has launched a security crackdown in Gaza, carrying out public executions and clashing with local clans.
Two things can be true at the same time – an adage so apt for the past day.
This was the Trump show. There’s no question about that. It was a show called by him, pulled off for him, attended by leaders who had no other choice and all because he craves the ego boost.
Gaza deal signed – as it happened
But the day was also an unquestionable and game-changing geopolitical achievement.
World leaders, including Trump and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, pose for a family photo. Pic: Reuters
Trump stopped the war, he stopped the killing, he forced Hamas to release all the hostages, he demanded Israel to free prisoners held without any judicial process, he enabled aid to be delivered to Gaza, and he committed everyone to a roadmap, of sorts, ahead.
He did all that and more.
He also made the Israel-Palestine conflict, which the world has ignored for decades, a cause that European and Middle Eastern nations are now committed to invest in. No one, it seems, can ignore Trump.
Love him or loathe him, those are remarkable achievements.
‘Focus of a goldfish’
The key question now is – will he stay the course?
One person central to the negotiations which have led us to this point said to me last week that Trump has the “focus of a goldfish”.
Benjamin Netanyahu applauds while Trump addresses the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Pic: Reuters
It’s true that he tends to have a short attention span. If things are not going his way, and it looks likely that he won’t turn out to be the winner, he quickly moves on and blames someone else.
So, is there a danger of that with this? Let’s check in on it all six months from now (I am willing to be proved wrong – the Trump-show is truly hard to chart), but my judgement right now is that he will stay the course with this one for several reasons.
First, precisely because of the show he has created around this. Surely, he won’t want it all to fall apart now?
He has invested so much personal reputation in all this, I’d argue that even he wouldn’t want to drop it, even when the going gets tough – which it will.
Second, the Abraham Accords. They represented his signature foreign policy achievement in his first term – the normalisation of relations between Israel and the Muslim world.
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How a huge day for the Middle East unfolded
Back in his first presidency, he tried to push the accords through without solving the Palestinian question. It didn’t work.
This time, he’s grasped the nettle. Now he wants to bring it all together in a grand bargain. He’s doing it for peace but also, of course, for the business opportunities – to help “make America great again”.
Peace – and prosperity – in the Middle East is good for America. It’s also good for Trump Inc. He and his family are going to get even richer from a prosperous Middle East.
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Then there is the Nobel Peace Prize. He didn’t win it this year. He was never going to – nominations had to be in by January.
But next year he really could win – especially if he solves the Ukraine challenge too.
If he could bring his coexistence and unity vibe to his own country – rather than stoking the division – he may stand an even greater chance of winning.
World
French PM Sebastien Lecornu shelves Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform in bid for political survival
France’s reappointed prime minister has offered to suspend controversial reforms to the country’s pension system, days after returning to the top role.
Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform, which gradually raises the age at which a worker can retire on a full pension from 62 to 64, was forced through without a vote in parliament after weeks of street protests in 2023.
Sebastien Lecornu said on Tuesday he would postpone the introduction of the scheme, one of Mr Macron’s main economic policies, until after the 2027 presidential election.
With two no-confidence votes in parliament this week, Mr Lecornu had little choice but to make the offer to secure the support of left-wing MPs who demanded it as the price of their support for his survival.
Mr Lecornu in parliament on Tuesday. Pic: Reuters
The prime minister will hope it is enough to get a slimmed-down 2026 budget passed at a time when France’s public finances are in a mess.
It will be seen as a blow to Mr Macron, leaving him with little in the way of domestic achievements after eight years in office. But it reflects the reality that giving ground on the landmark measure was the only way to ensure the survival of his sixth prime minister in under two years.
Mr Lecornu told MPs he will “suspend the 2023 pension reform until the presidential election”.
“No increase in the retirement age will take place from now until January 2028,” he added.
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The move will cost the Treasury €400m (£349m) in 2026, and €1.8bn (£1.5bn) the year after, he said, warning it couldn’t just be added to the deficit and “must therefore be financially offset, including through savings measures”.
Mr Lecornu, 39, was reappointed as prime minister by Mr Macron on Friday, four days after he resigned from the role just hours after naming his cabinet – and after political rivals threatened to topple his government.
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French PM returns to role days after quitting
On re-taking office, he pledged to “put an end to this political crisis, which is exasperating the French people, and to this instability, which is bad for France’s image and its interests”.
Economists in Europe have previously warned that France – the EU’s second-largest economy – faces a Greek-style debt crisis, with its deficit at 5.4%.
Mr Lecornu is hoping to bring that down to 4.7% with an overall package of cuts totalling €30bn (£26bn), but his plans were dismissed as wishful thinking by France’s independent fiscal watchdog.
Mr Macron has burned through five prime ministers in less than two years, but has so far refused to call another election or resign.
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