Study shows right-wing extremist attitudes on the rise in Germany

A new survey by a political think tank shows a major increase in right-wing extremist and antisemitic attitudes in Germany.

The study published on Thursday indicates that 8% of people in Germany have a right-wing extremist worldview, up from 2-3% in previous years. It was commissioned by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, which is associated with Germany’s center-left Social Democratic Party.

An antisemitic worldview is held by 5.7% of respondents, up from 1.7% two years ago, and 3.3% in the previous survey. The number of those who totally rejected antisemitism dropped to 79.9 % from 88% and 86.8% in the previous two studies. In recent decades, many surveys of antisemitic attitudes in Germany and elsewhere in Europe have shown similar levels.

Six percent of respondents liked the idea of a dictatorship, up from 2-4% in previous years. More people identify as right or right of center: 15.5 % compared to 10% in the previous two studies.

Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Chairman Martin Schulz told German media that evidently “part of [German] society has less and less trust in democracy and feels threatened socially and economically.”

He suggested that it was important to stand up to the right-leaning trend as represented by the rising popularity of the anti-immigrant, anti-European Union Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in polls.

The study came days after more than 40 gravestones were overturned in a Jewish section of the town cemetery of Köthen, in the former East German state of Saxony-Anhalt. The vandalism that took place between September 15 and 19 is under police investigation.

As yet, police have no information about the perpetrators, but restoration costs are estimated at £17,400.