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The
number of politically motivated crimes jumped by more than 23%
from the previous year to 55,048, the highest level since police
started collecting the data in 2001.
The increase was primarily due to a rise in "non-classic"
politically-motivated offences, or crimes not directly
associated with far-left or far-right politics, which accounted
for almost 40% of crimes last year, the report showed.
"The terrible climax of this violence was the murder of
20-year-old Alexander at a gas station in Idar-Oberstein by a
man who refused to wear a mask," Interior Minister Nancy Faeser
said while presenting the report.
More than 7,000 offences were recorded in connection with
COVID-19 restrictions and around 7,300 crimes were related to
last year's federal election, it added.
Violent crimes classified as political in nature rose by 16%
year-on-year to 3,889. Far-right offences fell by 7% last year,
but still accounted for 41% of crimes.
Anti-Semitic offences rose by 29% to over 3,000 and almost half
were committed in connection with the pandemic.
"It is a shame for our country how much anti-Semitic hate speech
and contempt for human beings is still being spread today,"
Faeser said, adding that a big part of the crimes were related
to anti-Semitic conspiracy ideologies.
Last year, Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office classified
vaccination opponents and coronavirus deniers as a "relevant
risk".
Concerns have mounted over an increasingly violent pushback
against COVID-19 restrictions and vaccination plans after police
foiled plots by anti-vaccination activists to murder a state
premier in December and to kidnap the health minister last
month.
(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)
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