Germany Faces Mounting Threats from Hostile Foreign Powers and Domestic Extremism

Germany faces mounting threats from hostile foreign powers, particularly Russia, and polarised domestic politics on both the far right and left, security officials have said.

The BfV domestic security agency warned in its annual report, released on Tuesday, local time, of a growing risk from, among others, Moscow-recruited saboteurs, Chinese spies, Iran-backed Islamist militants and violent neo-Nazis.

"The adversaries of our free democratic basic order come from both outside and within," Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said while presenting the report in Berlin.

Mr Dobrindt urged "very quick" government action on proposals to give Germany's intelligence agencies expanded powers and lift some strict limits on covert operations.

"Given the situation, we are convinced that we must further strengthen our capabilities," he said.

The greatest external threat "currently comes from Russia", Mr Dobrindt asserted, pointing to suspected cases of low-level or "disposable" agents recruited by Moscow to carry out espionage and sabotage acts.

BfV head Sinan Selen said: "Russia views Germany as a key adversary in Europe and employs the full spectrum of tools in its hybrid operations across the continent."

The report said foreign powers, not just Russia, carry out "sabotage operations, engage in illicit economic or political interference, including assassination operations, and spread disinformation".

Foreign powers have also increasingly targeted exiled opposition figures and political activists living in Germany, it said.

Critics of authoritarian regimes living in Germany are pursued "using methods akin to state terrorism, such as attacks, abductions or killings".

Right-wing extremist groups remain a much larger threat in Germany than those on the far left, the report states, although Mr Dobrindt noted a rise in violent incidents from both.

The agency's report also called antisemitism, as well as opposition to Israel, "key" challenges for German security authorities.

"Jewish and Israeli targets remain a focus for state actors, particularly Iran, as well as other organisations," Mr Selen said.

"Antisemitism is a key driver of these activities," he added.

The section of the report on right-wing extremism focused heavily on "xenophobic" violent crime, noting that many homegrown groups were both anti-Muslim and antisemitic, as well as being anti-immigrant and homophobic.

Report flags AfD's far-right potential

The number of Alternative for Germany members who could potentially become far-right extremists has risen by 40 per cent, the domestic intelligence service BfV and the interior ministry said in a report published on Tuesday.

The report found that the far-right AfD showed no signs of moderating positions that draw scrutiny from the intelligence services. Some 28,000 of the AfD's about 70,000 members were considered to have the potential for right-wing extremism, up from 20,000 the year before, it said.

The AfD has pulled ahead of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives in national opinion polls and is far ahead of any other party in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt, where it could win power for the first time in a September election.

The AfD rejects the accusations that its views are extremist and has said the intelligence service's assessments are politically motivated.

The BfV, which monitors extremist threats primarily through analysis of public statements and activities, defines extremism as efforts directed against Germany's free democratic constitutional order.

Tuesday's report found no indications that the party had over the past year distanced itself from the positions that concern the BfV's authorities.

Those positions include the party's espousal of an ethnic ancestry-based conception of the German people that courts have determined is incompatible with the constitution, it said.