Germany Unveils Measures To Tackle Far-Right Surge 

The German government has announced a package of legal measures aimed at fighting right-wing extremism.

This comes after weeks of mass demonstrations against the far-right swept through German towns and cities.

Throughout January, hundreds of thousands of people from all walks of German life took to the streets to protest against far-right extremism.

Interior Minister, Nancy Faeser said the protests had been “an encouragement and a mandate” to act politically.

Last month, Germans were shocked by revelations that senior members of Alternative for Germany (AfD) and neo-Nazi influencers attended a secret meeting where mass deportations were allegedly discussed.

“We want to use all instruments of rule of law to protect our democracy.

“We want to break up right-wing extremist networks, cut their funding and take away their weapons.” Faeser said on Tuesday.

She also said the 13-point plan would fight right-wing extremism, which she described as the biggest threat facing German society.

Proposals include new laws that make it easier to freeze bank accounts and cut funding models for extremists, even donors would be targeted, she said.

To undermine networks, officials will also be able to ban right-wing extremist events more easily and far-right activists will be stopped from entering or leaving Germany whenever possible.

Gun laws will be tightened, and it will be easier to dismiss state employees found guilty of extremism.

Many of the proposals are not new, In March 2022, Faeser introduced an “action plan against right-wing extremism” which included some of the ideas presented on Tuesday, including tougher gun laws, but these were blocked by her liberal coalition partners.

Given the current public outcry over right-wing extremism, Faeser now clearly hopes that her original proposals will meet less opposition from coalition partners and in parliament. 

According to the interior ministry, around 20,000 far-right crimes and attacks are registered per year, and the number of such incidents is growing.

Intelligence services say that more than 38,000 people in Germany are known to be right-wing extremists, and that around 14,000 are defined as potentially violent.

Meanwhile the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party have continued to do well in the polls.

Since the protests began, the party appears to have slipped one or two percentage points to just under 20%.

But most supporters are clearly not put off by the demonstrations. The AfD even increased its vote share slightly in a re-run of regional elections in Berlin on Sunday. 

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