The Radical Right During Crisis. Группа авторов

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      Some observations

      The assaults were very targeted and aimed to hit a specific target or victim group: A politician known for his pro refugee policy, such as Lübcke, the planned attack at the synagogue in Halle, and against shisha bars in Hanau, which are publicly identified as immigrant places. These targets are highly symbolic and are directed against very specific population groups. Thus, in most cases, right-wing terrorist attacks are by no means directed “against everyone” or committed randomly, but correspond to the specific radical right logic of the perpetrators. In all three cases there is no doubt about the mindset of the suspected perpetrators, which was, among others: racist, nationalist, anti-Semitic or misogynist.

      The perpetrators in Halle and Hanau were obviously inspired by attacks in other countries. The use of social media, the writing of a legitimizing manifesto, and the modus operandi—to commit the act by shooting the victims in public—has been a recurrent practice over the last ten years, for example in Breivik's murders in Norway in 2011 or the massacre in Christchurch, New Zealand in 2019.

      The reactions of high-ranking politicians, on the other hand, leave no concrete indications as to how the challenge of radical right terrorism can be addressed in the long term. On the one hand, action should be taken more consistently about toxic migration debates as well as radical right agitation on the Internet, on the streets and in parliaments. On the other hand, the covert structures of militant neo-Nazis, where strategies of armed struggle are discussed and weapons are procured, also pose a serious problem.

      The debate also includes disturbing statements by decision-makers, which are unlikely to strengthen the confidence of those concerned in state and political institutions. Sigmar Gabriel, former SPD federal chairman and former vice-chancellor, served a clear whataboutism when he tweeted a few hours after the Hanau attack:

      Even though Sigmar pointed out the danger of radical right violence in the following tweet, the dominant reference to damage to property by leftists was enormously irritating.

      However, the attitude of Hans-Georg Maaßen, who was president of the domestic intelligence service from 2012 to 2018, appears particularly problematic. Recently he has positioned himself clearly on the far right; after the crime in Hanau he tweeted:

      Socialist logic: perpetrators are always on the right, victims always on the left. You don't have to deal with Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Ulbricht... because they were Nazis. The catch is, in this thinking, they are themselves right-wing. Antifa=Nazis.

      In many statements people say they are stunned, angry and afraid, but also there is a feeling of insecurity and loss of confidence in state protection: who will protect us from the right-wing terrorists is a much-expressed question. And this is actually the central and most urgent question to which politics, security authorities, and society do not provide an answer.

      Dr Barbara Manthe was a Senior Fellow at CARR and is research associate in history at the University of Bielefeld.

      Eviane Leidig

      February 2020


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