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The protection of the constitution has analyzed the protests of the crown. According to information from WDR, NDR and SZ warns the national secret service of the emergence of a new form of extremism.
By Florian Flade, WDR and Georg Mascolo, NDR / WDR
It is a question that currently bothers both the security authorities and political decision makers: Who is marching in the demonstrations against the Corona measures? What role do extremists play in this? How dangerous is protest, in which violence also occurs more and more frequently?
When interior ministers at the federal and state levels met in June, they agreed that there was an urgent need to know more about this, especially if the protesters’ discontent could pose a threat to the country’s internal security. Therefore, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) was entrusted with the task of preparing a special situation report “Danger and risk potential, in particular from extremists and external services”.
After investigation of WDR, NDR and “Süddeutscher Zeitung” the role is now ready. It is 37 pages long and will be discussed at the next interior ministers conference on December 10. Several constitutional protection offices, including the authorities of Bavaria, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Hamburg, Thuringia and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, have analyzed the crown demonstrations in an “open country working group” under the leadership of the BfV .
No demarcation to extremists
The protection of the constitution came to the conclusion that it was still a “heterogeneous field of protest” in which different actors, increasingly extreme right-wing, the so-called “citizens of the Reich” and conspiratorial ideologies of the most varied could be observed. features. However, “the demonstrations and small rallies”, according to the central statement, are “mostly organized and frequented by non-extremist actors.”
However, it is notable that there is now a “regular mix of extremist and non-extremist actors” at events. For many protesters, there is no longer a substantial or spatial demarcation of right-wing extremists or “citizens of the Reich.” The extremist statements or participants were “denied or rated as non-problematic.” A phenomenon that is also described over and over again by representatives of the police. Violent vandals and neo-Nazis sometimes marched alongside bourgeois activists, who increasingly take children to demonstrations.
In the far-right mythological scenes and the conspiracy there are numerous connecting elements that are increasingly appearing in demonstrations against state measures to contain the corona virus, such as “hostility to the elite”, pronounced anti-Semitism, belief in a “new world order”, the legend of the “great exchange” of the population or of “forced vaccinations”.
Added to this are new phenomena, such as the “QAnon” movement. His supporters believe in a so-called “deep state”, in elite circles that abuse and murder children in secret military installations and underground facilities. “The theory is also spreading in the German-speaking digital space, especially through a large number of homepages, blogs and YouTube channels, the range of which, however, cannot be quantified or qualified,” says the status report of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
New Internet Extremism?
The protection of the constitution also warned in its document of the possible emergence of a new extremism, a “sui generis extremism”, due to the rapid mixing of different ideologies and world views. “An extremism that does not fall within the common phenomena in the constitutional protection group”, as the analysis says. Therefore, it is necessary not only to observe the “infiltration” of the Corona protests by known extremists, but also to investigate the extent to which a new form of extremism has already emerged “particularly through the Internet, which functions as a space of information and socialization “. This is the only way to recognize hazards early on.
A “strong belief in conspiracy theories” could “promote a willingness to commit criminal acts.” They provided “justifications” to their supporters, for example, “attacks on government institutions” would be understood as acts of “self-defense.”
No targeted campaign from Russia
The task force of the task force also included determining whether foreign states are fueling and exploiting the crown protests in Germany. Regarding Russia, the country is said to be spreading false information as well, generally “misinformation and propaganda from foreign powers”, which initially decreased in May 2020, has now increased significantly again. But with regard to Russia, you don’t see “a complex disinformation campaign directed against Germany regarding the Covid-19 pandemic.” China is particularly keen to question its role as the “virus’s country of origin” and to praise its own handling of the health crisis.
The outlook for constitutional protection regarding future developments and recommendations for action is sobering. A “situation of great dynamism” is emerging, whose course is “difficult to predict”, according to the document that will be presented to the interior ministers next week. And: “A referral to the security authorities alone is not enough to completely dominate the subject.” Rather, it is a task of society as a whole.
