After the verdict against Lina E.: How dangerous are left-wing extremists?

The verdict against the left-wing extremist Lina E., which was pronounced by the Dresden Higher Regional Court on Wednesday after almost 100 days of negotiations, caused a stir. The 28-year-old student is to go to prison for five years and three months. In the federal government, the judgment was positively received.

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) described left-wing extremist violence as an increasing danger. In left-wing extremist groups, the inhibitions to attack political opponents with extreme brutality have fallen, the politician said.

At first glance, the figures from the Federal Criminal Police Office speak a different language: In statistics on politically motivated crime, the number of left-wing crimes fell by 31 percent from 10,113 to 6,976, while right-wing crimes rose by seven percent, from 21,964 to 23,493.

In the meantime, the victims are systematically selected, people are specifically spied on for days, teams are formed, martial arts are trained, wigs are used, disposable cell phones, false license plates.

Henrik Hansenextremism researcher and professor at the Federal University for Public Administration.

But anyone who compares these numbers with each other sometimes makes a mistake in reasoning, explains extremism researcher Hendrik Hansen. The right-motivated crimes are about twice as high as the left-motivated ones in every survey, the reason for this is the propaganda crimes, which only exist on the right-hand side, said Hendrik Hansen, extremism researcher and professor at the Federal University for Public Administration, the Tagesspiegel.

“Anyone who shows the Hitler salute or smears a swastika anywhere is liable to prosecution under the Penal Code,” explains the professor. “A red star as a sign of communism, on the other hand, is not a criminal offence. If you factor out such crimes and focus on the acts of violence, then right-wing extremism and left-wing extremism are on average about the same.”

According to the 2021 report by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the number of left-wing extremists in Germany has risen by 1.2 percent to 34,700 people – more than one in four left-wing extremists can be classified as violent, it is said. The right-wing extremist potential is 33,900 people, of whom 13,500 are considered violent.

Unlike right-wing extremist violence, left-wing extremist violence has not killed anyone since the RAF. But Hansen speaks of a new quality of the acts of violence. In the past, events-related violence, such as demonstrations, was the main source of links.

“In the meantime, the victims are systematically selected, people are specifically spied on for days, teams are formed, martial arts are trained, wigs are used, disposable cell phones, false license plates,” says Hansen. There’s planning. “One speaks to the target person, if he is distracted, the rest of the group attacks,” reports the extremism researcher. “This cold-blooded brutality in this form is new.”

Lina E., now an icon in the left-wing extremist scene, and her accomplices may have acted similarly. Between October 2018 and spring 2020, they carried out at least six attacks on right-wing extremists in Saxony and Thuringia – secretly planned, precisely executed, and with brutal violence.

Where does the increased willingness to use violence come from? Felix Neumann, security expert at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, gives the Tagesspiegel various explanations.

Social media echo chambers encourage radicalization

“In the scene, it is assumed that the state acts encroaching and has a restrictive effect in some areas,” says Neumann. “It is used to argue that the state cannot solve current problems effectively, which creates a tendency to take the law into one’s own hands and act accordingly.”

The role of social media with their echo chambers should also not be neglected – i.e. groups in which one’s own opinion is increasingly replicated, while other aspects, some of which promote discourse, find it difficult to find their way inside.

The left scene argues that the state cannot solve current problems in a goal-oriented manner, which creates a tendency to take the law into one’s own hands and act accordingly.

Felix Neumansecurity expert at the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation.

Thomas Haldenwang, President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, expressed concern on Wednesday after the verdict was announced that an increasing number of violent left-wing extremists are trying to evade prosecution and may have gone into hiding. So probably also the partner of Lina E.

More and more left-wing extremists are underground

Hansen sees a possible parallel to the NSU and the RAF here. “In the past, terrorism grew from going underground,” says Hansen. That has logic. “Anyone who goes into hiding disappears completely in the radical scene and only encounters extremists,” explains the extremism expert. “That is very dangerous.”

He warns against glorifying left-wing extremism. “They have something against right-wing extremism, but we do too, that’s what it often sounds like when the topic is discussed – or also: We are all Antifa,” says Hansen. “But this fails to recognize that an autonomous, left-wing extremist anti-fascist wants to abolish the state and rejects our democracy. The acts are not only directed against people, but against our constitution.”

According to the report by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the development in the hotspots of Berlin, Hamburg and Leipzig continues to give cause for concern. But also in other federal states, individual small groups became radicalized, cut themselves off from the rest of the scene and committed numerous criminal and violent crimes in a conspiratorial, collaborative and planned manner.

Thomas Haldenwang believes that the threshold to terrorism has not yet been crossed, but spoke of a radicalization spiral. “If it keeps turning and the acts become more and more brutal and uninhibited, then the moment is approaching when one also has to speak of left-wing terrorism.”