A German government investigation has revealed that more than 300 members of the country’s security agencies have links to “right-wing” extremism, including officers who were found to have joined in “Heil Hitler” chants and Nazi salutes.
“We will not allow our democratic constitutional state to be sabotaged from within by right-wing extremists,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement on Friday. “Every case of extremism must have clear consequences.” She added that Berlin will exhaust all current legal options to deal with extremists in the country’s security ranks, and she will propose legislation to help “remove enemies of the constitution from the public service more quickly.”
The probe examined 860 suspected cases of extremist behavior dating as far back as July 2018 and revealed “concrete evidence” against 327 employees of security services at federal and state levels. Germany’s military intelligence service (MAD) was most rife with offenders, with 83 employees found to have been involved in activities “against the free democratic basic order,” the report said. The federal police ranked second, with 18 such employees.