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meAn angry crowd, whistles, shouts of “shame”: scenes on the sidelines of an appearance in the election campaign of Health Minister Jens Spahn attracted attention in August. The CDU politician wanted to speak, the crowd did not. Subsequently, Spahn filed charges of insult, one of the protesters had called him a “gay pig”. The man paid a fine of 2,800 euros. The case is exemplary for many others.
Politically motivated crime against politicians increased dramatically in the year of the Crown. According to a preliminary analysis, authorities recorded 2,629 crimes against elected officials and officials in the last year. This stems from a response from the Federal Ministry of the Interior to a small question from the left-wing MP Ulla Jelpke. WELT has the role.
The increase compared to the previous year corresponds to an increase of 57 percent; in 2019 there were still 1,674 cases. Compared to 2018 (1,256 cases), the number is even more than double.
Many acts cannot be assigned politically
The list of the most frequent crimes is headed by a wide margin with insults (1,247 cases). Coercion / threat (403), property damage (228) and sedition (212) follow.
Source: WORLD infographic
There has been a slight decrease in violent crime, from 87 in 2019 to 78 cases in the last year. Among other things, it refers to an attempted murder, as well as a crime with explosives and seven arson attacks. Most of the cases in this category are extortion (48) and assault (17).
In 2019, the number increased sharply and more than doubled. The assassination of the CDU politician Walter Lübcke and the reports of the politicians had led to a wide social debate on hatred and violence. A year later, you should realize that the situation has not improved significantly.
“At present, the events of the crown and the state measures to contain the pandemic are causing an increase in protests and resistance against the state and its representatives, especially among the actors of the crime phenomenon of ‘right’ and ‘ left ‘”, the Federal Ministry. of the Interior, said in the Answer.
It is not quantified how strong the increase is that can be explained in this way. As the Ministry of the Interior explains, there is no information period at the national level. However, the authorities see 374 crimes against officials and elected officials in the previous year as Corona’s reference, at least 14 percent of the cases.
Crime has increased particularly steeply in the area that cannot be clearly mapped politically, as the Interior Ministry writes. 370 of the crimes belong to the left category, 901 to the right category. Compared to the previous year, this corresponds to an increase of almost 20 percent to the left (2019: 310 cases) and to the right by 48 percent (2019: 609 cases).
On the other hand, there are 1,339 crimes that cannot be imputed and do not fall into the smaller categories of “foreign ideology” (15) and “religious ideology” (four). Here the number has increased by 84 percent (2019: 727 cases).
Source: WORLD infographic
The Interior Ministry suspects that the many cases can also be explained by the Internet: the large number of insults, coercion or threats “are likely to be committed anonymously, including the use of the Internet and social networks,” it says. “The supposed anonymity leads to growing verbal radicalism and more statements relevant to criminal law in the virtual space.”
Furthermore, the authorities allocate almost ten percent (243 cases) of criminal offenses and almost half of all violent crimes (42) against officials and mandate-holders to the so-called Reich citizen scene.
“The fact that violence has not increased is a good sign. However, what worries me most is the high proportion of crimes committed by citizens of the Reich, ”said Jelpke, a national policy spokesman for the left-wing group. After all, it is a “relatively small following” that is “largely violent.”
Jelpke criticized the fact that crimes assigned to the Reich citizen scene were generally not counted as part of the far-right spectrum. “That distorts the statistics. In reality, it threatens to grow a dangerous, violent and far-right offspring, ”said the member of the Bundestag.
AfD politicians particularly affected
AfD officials and mandate holders were victims with particular frequency, specifically in 863 cases, that is, almost 42 per cent of all acts in which party affiliation is known. Far is the Union with 306 crimes (CDU: 257; CSU: 49), then the SPD (293), Greens (252), Left (192) and FDP (56).
102 crimes affected members of parties that are not represented in the Bundestag. In addition to politicians who hold office or mandate, party members or institutions are also victims of politically motivated crimes; these cases represent more than 1,100 additional crimes.
In view of the current super election year with six state elections, four local elections and the federal election, the Interior Ministry is quite pessimistic. The experience of recent years has shown that in the run-up to elections an increase in politically motivated crimes against parties and politicians is to be expected. In particular, the ministry expects an increase in acts that cannot be assigned to any clear political direction.
