Germany - Right-wing extremist crime on rise

The number of right-wing extremist crimes increased significantly in Germany last year, intelligence officials said.

Around 20,000 extremist acts were recorded in 2008, a rise of 16% from the previous year, the domestic federal intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, said in its 2008 report.

Violent right-wing extremist attacks rose by 6%.

"Fighting the threat from right-wing extremism is a priority," Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said at the presentation of the report, which said around 30,000 people are considered right-wing extremists in Germany.

The findings could further fan a debate among German politicians about whether to ban the National Democratic Party (NPD), which the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has described as racist, antisemitic and revisionist.

Efforts to ban the party failed in 2003 when judges at the country's highest court rejected the government's case after it emerged that some of the testimony was from government informants within the party.

Schaeuble said no new attempt to ban the NPD should be made until it was clear such efforts had a chance to succeed.

"If we launch procedures for a ban and they won't succeed, there is the risk that this will have a boomerang effect... and provide publicity for the NPD," he said.

The NPD has about 7,000 members and has made gains in local elections in East German regions, where unemployment is high.

Source: http://www.spiegel.de/

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