Germany: Politically motivated crimes rose in 2020

Shafaq News/ Politically motivated crimes in Germany have increased for the 2020 year, according to Deutsche Welle.

The Deutsche Welle Arabia stated that the German authorities recorded 44,034 politically motivated crimes in the past year, compared to about 41,000 in 2019.

The German Ministry of the Interior responded to a briefing request from the parliamentary bloc of the Green Party, saying the right-wing extremists are responsible for about half of the crimes, while left-motivated crimes come second.

According to the data, nearly a thousand crimes fall under the category of "foreign ideology", which could include, for example, the ideology of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

The authorities recorded just less than 460 crimes as religiously motivated.

There was also a clear increase in the number of anti-Semitic crimes to 2,322, almost all of them motivated by right-wing extremism.

In statements to the Der Tagesspiegel newspaper, the internal affairs expert in the Greens' parliamentary bloc, Irene Mihalic, said there is "a tremendous danger from the far-right… to be more specific: from the far-right men, who make up the majority of the suspects."

Meanwhile, the Rheinische Post said today, Saturday that an official survey among the interior ministries in the German states showed that the number of Sonic weapons licenses in 2020 reached more than 704,000 licenses, a 6% increase of 2019.