More and more neo-Nazis go into hiding

The numbers keep rising. The Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) reports that 596 right-wing extremists are wanted with a total of 788 arrest warrants, the deadline for the survey is September 30th.

That is 137 rights in hiding and 186 pending arrest warrants more than the ministry announced in the summer for the March 31 deadline. The information can be found in the responses of the Federal Ministry of the Interior to regular inquiries from the left-wing parliamentary group. For the left-wing MP Martina Renner, the numbers are an occasion to urge Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) about her announced commitment against right-wing extremism.

“The current high of 788 arrest warrants, including those against violent criminals and those who evidently managed to escape to other European countries without any problems, makes the threat situation tangible,” Renner told Tagesspiegel. According to the government’s announcements about the danger posed by the extreme right, the authorities “have to be measured against specific acts such as extradition and exchanges with the European countries concerned”. After taking office, Faeser had emphasized that at the moment the greatest threat to internal security “clearly comes from right-wing extremism”.

The issue of right-wing extremists who have disappeared has been extremely explosive since the NSU at the latest. The terrorist cell members wanted by the police went underground in 1998 and stayed in hiding for almost 14 years. During that time they committed ten murders, three bomb attacks and other crimes. Terror is also to be feared at least among some of the 596 right-wing extremists that are now being sought.

The Interior Ministry reports that an open arrest warrant “was based on a terrorist act”. Which is not specified. The ministry only displays data that the Federal Criminal Police Office receives from the federal states. Another 26 arrest warrants concern violent political crimes. According to the ministry, it is “predominantly assault crimes and resistance to law enforcement officers”. A total of 125 other arrest warrants are pending for other right-wing offenses, including sedition, libel and the use of symbols of unconstitutional organizations.

Rights also become violent more quickly in everyday life

However, the results also show that in most cases right-wing extremists who have disappeared have committed apolitical crimes. The ministry speaks of “general crime such as theft, fraud, fraudulent activity, traffic offenses” and other crimes. In more than 130 searches beyond politically motivated crime, however, the right-wing extremists sought used violence.

Although there are no comparative figures for Islamists, autonomists and other extremists in hiding, security circles consider the “tendency towards general crime” to be significantly greater among right-wing extremists. “The purely criminal energy is more pronounced with them,” says a high-ranking expert. In everyday life, too, rights would become violent more quickly than other extremists.

Why the problem of the neo-Nazis in hiding is growing continuously is difficult to explain, even for security experts who have been active for many years. One possible reason: the lack of resources in the authorities. One expert put it drastically, “If you have a right-wing extremist who has gone into hiding, you don’t put a task force on to find him. Especially not in times of the pandemic, in which the police are extremely challenged ”. The problem of the disappeared is “a permanent business”.

Some neo-Nazis have been wanted for years

This is also shown by the response from the federal government. The oldest arrest warrant for a right-wing extremist has been open for ten years, but because of an apolitical offense. The numbers then increase rapidly over the past three years. In 2018 the police reported in the “Inpol-Z” file that in addition to the old cases, a further 33 right-wing extremists were wanted. 77 were added in 2019, then 94 in 2020 and even 358 this year.
The police and the Office for the Protection of the Constitution have discovered that some of the people in hiding may be abroad.

At the top is Poland, where 13 fugitive right-wing extremists are suspected. This is followed by Austria (eleven), Switzerland (seven), Italy (six) and Romania (five). However, several of those who had disappeared could also have fled to distant countries. The police even believe there are two right-wing extremists in Afghanistan. In the case of a man from Saxony, however, the authorities knew where he was at least until November.

Christopher F., who beat up an Afghan in the Ore Mountains in 2016, left after early release in 2018. A violation of the probation conditions, the Dresden public prosecutor obtained an arrest warrant. But F. could not be grasped. The authorities then learned the whereabouts in a macabre manner. The right-wing extremist robbed a man’s scooter in Cambodia in November 2018 and was arrested. A court sentenced the German to three years in prison. The Dresden public prosecutor said on request that there was no evidence that F. had returned to Germany. He would have to serve another five months here.

However, the police can also report hits. In the response of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, 237 arrest warrants against right-wing extremists were carried out from March to September – or were dealt with in another way, “for example by paying a fine”. This shows that the police are carrying out the searches vigorously and successfully despite the pandemic, says the Federal Ministry of the Interior.