Nearly 200 German police officers suspected of right wing extremism

According to a media report, almost 200 police officers across Germany are suspected of right-wing extremism or conspiracy ideologies. As reported by Stern and RTL on Saturday, citing a survey of the interior ministries of all 16 German states, at least 193 police officers in the states are currently the subject of disciplinary proceedings or investigations. There could even be more, as not all states were able to provide clear figures.

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North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin each reported around 80 ongoing disciplinary proceedings, but said they were unable to assign them to political categories such as “right-wing” or “left-wing”. According to research by Stern and RTL, a total of more than 571 disciplinary proceedings or investigations against police officers in the federal states on suspicion of right-wing extremist views and/or conspiracy ideology have been ongoing since 2020.

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Here too, the actual number could be significantly higher, as four federal states do not keep any usable statistics, at least in part. According to the report, these were North Rhine-Westphalia, Berlin, Thuringia and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

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“Every case here is one case too many,” Bavaria's Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) told the media. "Civil servants must demonstrate their commitment to the free democratic basic order as defined by the Basic Law through their entire conduct, both on and off duty, and stand up for its preservation."