In Germany, observers now say in hushed, anxious voices:Transportation in WeimarPost-war Germany has taken extreme measures in every sphere of culture, economy and society to forbid a repeat of the instability that saw fierce street battles between the Communist left and the Nazi right, enabling Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party to win a large majority of the German people’s votes, take power in 1933 and from there shut down the democratic state and impose a fascist dictatorship.
In Germany, observers now say in hushed, anxious voices:Transportation in WeimarPost-war Germany has taken extreme measures in every sphere of culture, economy and society to forbid a repeat of the instability that saw fierce street battles between the Communist left and the Nazi right, enabling Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party to win a large majority of the German people’s votes, take power in 1933 and from there shut down the democratic state and impose a fascist dictatorship.
That is why Germans are deeply troubled by the shocking spate of violence against candidates and campaign volunteers in the run-up to the EU-wide European Parliament elections, which will take place from 6 to 9 June. And while the phenomenon has been most intense and sustained in Germany, there is evidence that it is not exclusive to the Federal Republic of Germany. In Slovakia, Prime Minister Robert Fico was the victim of an assassination attempt on 15 May. France, Poland, the Netherlands and other countries have also seen a sharp increase in violence against politicians, although the perpetrators do not generally have as close ties to the far-right as in Germany.
Dutch political historian Ido de Haan stresses that the rise of the far-right across Europe is at the root of the problem. “The big picture behind this violence is mainly the rise of the far-right across Europe,” he said. Foreign PolicyHe noted that far-right parties have led or participated in governments in Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden and, more recently, the Netherlands. Far-right parties, including in Germany, are expected to do particularly well in the EU vote, and high-profile attacks could work to their advantage, he said.
Indeed, Germany seems to be the epicenter of the phenomenon, with female officials particularly vulnerable. On May 4, Matthias Ecke, a prominent Social Democrat, was putting up posters in Dresden when he was attacked by four young people, at least one of whom was a known right-wing extremist. Ecke was beaten so badly that he was hospitalized with broken bones. That week, a female Green Party campaigner was assaulted in the same city. On May 7, in Berlin, former mayor of the Social Democrat Franziska Giffey was attacked and injured. In 2023, Germany saw a sharp increase in aggressive acts against politicians and government officials, with 3,691 incidents, 80 of which involved physical violence. The figures show that the majority of perpetrators are far-right extremists. The Green Party bears the overwhelming brunt of the abuse.
The far-right has long viewed the left as its main political enemy, but in recent years the Green Party, with its attention-grabbing climate policies and progressive identity politics, has become a disproportionate target. The far-right labels environmentalists as elitist, cosmopolitan, and more concerned about the natural world than the people who live in it. They are categorized as the party that wants to ban and outlaw internal combustion cars, domestic flights, new oil and gas heating systems, and more. But the Democrats are all targets of the far-right’s hatred, and are targeted as such in a deliberate, strategic and calculated way.
“In Germany, these and other cases amount to interference in the electoral process,” de Haan said, arguing that there are no parallels in Europe, at least for now. The Greens and other left-wing parties are the targets of an indirectly orchestrated, tactical effort to disrupt electoral campaigns and undermine democracy, he said. “The far-right’s aim is to delegitimize the democratic process. They want to present themselves as the most visible and influential political force, ready to stand up and take dramatic action against alleged flaws in the system.”
“These attacks aim to destroy the foundations of democracy,” the left-liberal daily agreed. Tageszeitung“It depends on the political commitment of the people of the city and the region. If everyone is afraid to run for office, the perpetrators will win.”
In contrast, the attempted assassination of Fico in Slovakia seems similar to previous incidents of political violence carried out in Slovakia by underworld figures and political opponents. As the assailant acted alone and was unhappy with government policies, it seems “closely linked to the specific situation in Slovakia,” explained Wolf Brunbauer, a historian at the University of Regensburg. “There was extreme polarization, a public debate full of hate speech, accusations of corruption and illegality against political opponents, and a major conflict over Slovakia’s geopolitical position: West or East,” Brunbauer said. Foreign Policy.
German experts say the salience and escalation of political violence has absolutely nothing to do with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) itself. The AfD is an extremist party whose beliefs often coincide with those of full-blown neo-Nazis within the party. “The AfD is a party that has violence in its DNA,” said Heike Kleffner, author of several books on the German right and head of a counseling center for victims of right-wing violence. “AfD language, statements and denunciations condone and even call for violence against political opponents,” she said.
Due to the inflammatory nature of AfD’s activities, several AfD chapters in eastern Germany and the AfD youth wing in the country are under surveillance by German intelligence. Because AfD’s policies are far more extreme than those of its far-right comrades in the European Parliament’s Identity and Democracy Group, a populist right-wing coalition of parties that includes Marine Le Pen’s Rally for France, the Rally for France expelled AfD from the party on May 21. A new German investigation has found that 28 AfD members active in the German parliament have been convicted of violence-related offences, including verbal abuse and incitement to hatred.
Kleffner noted that right-wing attacks on democratic officials are not new, though they are growing in scope: In 2019, Walter Lübke, a Christian Democrat politician in Hesse, was shot dead by a neo-Nazi after expressing sympathy for refugees; in 2015, a liberal candidate for mayor of Cologne was stabbed in the throat while campaigning.
In response, the AfD denies any involvement in street violence and points out that it has also been the victim of political violence. On May 22, AfD politician Mario Kumpf was punched in the face at a supermarket in Saxony, and more recently on June 5, another AfD local official was attacked with a knife in the western German city of Mannheim. However, the number of AfD victims and the extent of injuries are nothing compared to those of the Democrats, and the attacks are not part of a larger political strategy.
The fear of injury is already affecting Germany’s political culture, with candidates and campaigners travelling in groups and party officials saying it is becoming harder to recruit new people to run for office.
“Nobody knows what the threshold is for the subversion of democracy,” Holger Münch, head of Germany’s Federal Investigative Police Agency, told German media. “But when 10 percent of people with positions of authority say they are considering resigning because of hostility, and almost 10 percent say they don’t want to run for office again because of hostility, the figures are clearly too high.”
The surge in violence and shocking reports have prompted renewed calls for police to do more and for the government to ban the AfD. The German government passed a Democracy Promotion Bill that will allocate around 200 million euros a year to efforts to promote “diversity, tolerance and democracy.”
Historians like Brumbauer say the violence on Germany’s political scene bears no resemblance to the mayhem that raged in Weimar Germany. But others say the far-right used violence then and now to achieve political ends. Hate speech, mandates to act and the demonization of political opponents fuel hostility as like-minded strongmen take to the streets to beat others with fists and clubs.
“The consensus that existed in the former Federal Republic [political violence] The argument that they are inadmissible under the penalty of political banishment has been dashed.” TageszeitungFurther violence could shatter the new normal and deal a blow to German democracy that, while perhaps not identical to Weimar Germany, is alarmingly similar.
