This is while Berlin should not hide its role in this crisis. This social excitement has now become a "political demand" in the West. The dissatisfaction of European citizens with their governments has caused them to explicitly demand the return to the twentieth century and the time before the formation of United Europe.
Obviously, in this situation, "Crossing the traditional parties" would become a general demand in the West. Under such circumstances, Merkel's and other European leaders' warnings about the return to the twentieth century and the time before the formation of United Europe simply means the inability of the Eurozone authorities in preventing the Right-extremism in the West.
Ultimately, European security and political authorities must respond to the free-riding of nationalist, extremist, anti-Islam and anti-immigration groups. European officials should be responsive to the extreme activity of these extremist groups over the past decades.
Merkel says neo-Nazis must be tackled "without taboos"
As AFP reported, Chancellor Angela Merkel on Saturday said Germany must resist neo-Nazis "without any taboos" following the killing of a local politician by a suspected right-wing extremist.Such violence "must be resisted from the outset and without any taboos," Merkel said during an address to the Protestant Church Congress in the western city of Dortmund."This is why the state is called upon (to act) at all levels and the federal government takes this very, very seriously," said Merkel.
Her remarks came days after police arrested an alleged neo-Nazi for shooting dead Kassel city local politician Walter Luebcke -- Merkel's fellow Christan Democrat -- at his home in the western town on June 2.The 45-year-old killer has allegedly blamed his action on his anger at an influx of refugees and migrants to Germany.Several other German politicians believed sympathetic to the migrant cause have been threatened, and that, coupled with the Luebcke shooting, prompted Merkel to speak out."This is not just a terrible act but also a major challenge for us to examine on all fronts where there are extreme-right tendencies," said Merkel.
Hours before her speech, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas had warned on Twitter that "Germany has a terrorism problem."We have more than 12,000 violent rightwing extremists in our country," said Maas, lamenting that 450 of them were able to stay underground "even though they are the subject of an arrest warrant."
Maas, a Social Democrat coalition partner of Merkel, said Germans had to call out extremist behaviour for what it is and said they must "not concede a millimetre to enemies of freedom."
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer meanwhile warned of a "very dangerous development" and said the government would be looking at ways of placing restrictions on the far right."This killing moves me to do everything possible to reinforce security," Seehofer, a member of the Christian Democrats' conservative partner the Christian Social Union, told the Funke media group in an interview.One mooted restriction is curbing the right to express extremist views online and making them subject to legal action for "inciting hatred."
Seehofer said Berlin would assess how constitutionally it might take even tougher measures and deprive some people of their basic rights."Ours is the ministry in charged of questions touching on the constitution. We shall seriously examine the possibilities," Seehofer told Funke.
Peter Tauber, a Merkel ally and former CDU general secretary, urged that "enemies of the constitution" should be deprived of certain rights including to express their views publicly and to hold meetings.
Far-right extremism suspected in Merkel ally’s murder
Financial Time reported German prosecutors said the man suspected of murdering a regional politician this month was a far-right extremist, in a finding that is likely to heighten concerns over the threat posed by neo-Nazis and other far-right groups in the country.Walter Lübcke, a member of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats and a prominent supporter of her refugee policy, was found dead at his home in the central city of Kassel on June 2, sparking alarm across the political spectrum. Police said he was apparently killed by a single shot to the head from close range.
On Monday the federal prosecutors office, based in Karlsruhe, said it had taken over the probe into Lübcke’s death due to the “special gravity” of the crime.“Based on the current state of the investigation we assume that there is a rightwing extremist background to this crime. This [assumption] is based on the previous life of the accused and on the opinions and views he has voiced in public,” a spokesman said.
A suspect, identified as a 45-year-old German named Stefan E., was arrested on Saturday. According to German media reports, the man arrested is linked to Combat 18, a well-known neo-Nazi group. He has a previous conviction for a 1993 arson attack on a refugee centre. The spokesman said prosecutors would try to identify potential instigators and accomplices, but cautioned that no evidence so far indicated that the suspect was part of a “rightwing extremist terror group”.
Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour. Lübcke’s death comes less than a year after the surviving member of a neo-Nazi cell received a life sentence for her role in the racially charged murder of 10 people. The killing spree continued for seven years, in part because Germany’s internal security service failed to see the neo-Nazi connection, wrongly assuming that the killings were part of criminal feuds within the migrant community.
As regional president for the district of Kassel, Lübcke became known as a staunch defender of Ms Merkel’s handling of the 2015-16 refugee crisis, when more than 1m migrants from countries such as Syria and Afghanistan arrived.Lübcke urged people in his district to be welcoming and suggested that Germans who were not ready to help those in distress were free to leave the country themselves — a remark that made him a prominent target for far-right activists and neo-Nazis.
His death prompted a flood of celebratory messages and postings on far-right social media accounts that shocked German politicians and the wider public. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the federal president, described the reactions as “cynical, tasteless, abhorrent and disgusting in every way”.
The murder is expected to be discussed in parliament soon after several senior lawmakers called for a special meeting of the chamber’s home affairs committee. Mathias Middelburg, the home affairs spokesman of Ms Merkel’s CDU/CSU bloc, described the case as “very serious”.
Konstantin von Notz, an MP for the Green party, said: “In the light of the dramatic and alarming developments in the Lübcke case a special meeting of the home affairs committee has become unavoidable.”
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