German political scientist Hajo Funke after attack on SPD member: ‘The extreme right is brimming with self-confidence’

Dhe punch in the eye of German MEP Matthias Ecke was not an incident. Later that evening, in the same street in Dresden, a Green Party poster was overpowered, probably by the same group of four suspects: boys on the borderline of adulthood with extreme right-wing motives.

Violence against politicians has been increasing in Germany for years, but there has been an escalation in recent months. Last week, politicians and campaign workers from the Greens and the SPD were victims of far-right aggression in five other German cities.

The perpetrators do not exclusively come from the right-wing corner, according to recent statistics Federal Criminal Office: AfD politicians are regularly attacked by perpetrators from the extreme left spectrum. “But it is clear that the willingness to overthrow democracy in Germany currently mainly comes from the extreme right,” says extremism expert Hajo Funke (79).

High potential for violence

Funke spent years researching far-right groups in Germany at the Freie Universität in Berlin, in particular their popularity in the eastern states since German unification and the causes thereof. After his retirement, he continued to publish and participate in public debate, where he regularly warns about the high potential for violence of the extreme right.

Yet Funke was also surprised when he read about the attack on Matthias Ecke. ‘As far as we know now – the investigation has not yet been completed – these guys acted more or less on their own. It appears they were not controlled by any organization. And then hitting someone in the hospital as a 17-year-old is exceptional. That is a new step that shows how violent the far right is in some places in eastern Germany.’

All political parties in Germany condemned the violence against Ecke, including the far-right AfD. Yet German media unanimously point to that party as the driving force behind the increased right-wing violence. Do you think that analysis is correct?

‘Certainly. The AfD has been strongly radicalized in recent years. Within the party there is no longer any significant opposition to the extreme right-wing ideas of people such as the European party leader Maximilian Krah and Björn Höcke, the party leader in Thuringia and one of the most important party ideologues. The ideas they spread are much more radical than those of Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement national in France. I don’t think people outside Germany always realize that.’

Both Krah and Höcke legitimize the use of violence in their rhetoric, Funke believes. To illustrate, he recalls Krah’s statement that he would like to ‘remigrate’ 25 million Germans who, according to him, have a migration background. Höcke wrote in his book entitled Not the same river twice already in 2018 about similar deportation fantasies. To carry out that plan, Höcke notes, “properly proportioned atrocities” will likely be necessary.

For the AfD, the European elections are actually just the appetizer to the state elections in Brandenburg, Thuringia and Saxony this fall. Especially in Saxony, where the AfD has been officially labeled as far-right by the Constitutional Court, the party has a realistic chance of becoming the largest, according to Funke. In the polls they are now a few percentage points ahead of the CDU at 34 percent.

What does the increase in violence say about the mood among far-right groups in Germany?

‘The extreme right is bursting with self-confidence. Especially in Saxony they smell power and therefore become bolder and more visible. I think that is an important explanation for the attacks on politicians. Something is at stake. You actually see this in all places where the extreme right has had strong structures since German unification: in parts of Dresden, in Chemnitz where the terrorist group ‘Revolution Chemnitz’ was active a few years ago, in Zwickau where the terrorists of the NSU went into hiding.’

The attacks on politicians lead to comparisons with the National Socialist gangs in the early 1930s, just before Hitler came to power. Do you think this is justified?

‘There are certainly places where the extreme right is dominant in daily life, but it is not comparable to the terror of the SA and the SS at the time. Political relations today are also not the same as in the aftermath of the Weimar Republic, when the political center was virtually wiped out.

‘But for Björn Höcke and the extremist thinker Götz Kubitschek, influential within the AfD, this is a very attractive narrative. They constantly play with references to that time and try to convince voters that such a revolution is coming.’

Minister of the Interior Nancy Faeser (SPD) organized an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss better protection for politicians. Do you think that makes sense?

‘Of course. But it is especially important that she actually takes measures: more police, tougher intervention, strict punishment. Repression is important to prevent waves of violence like this from becoming normal in the run-up to the state elections this fall.

‘But this does not solve the underlying problem, the fundamental lack of trust in politics that makes people susceptible to extremist ideas. This government is actually fueling that, because of the constant infighting within the coalition and the resulting inefficiency. Confidence in politics and democracy is historically low in Germany. And that is on top of the already strong dissatisfaction and polarization due to Covid policies, inflation, energy prices and the dissatisfaction among many Germans about unconditional support for Israel and Ukraine. This crisis of democracy creates ideal conditions for the AfD.”