German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced Tuesday plans to trace individuals who donate to so-called “right-wing extremists” and establish an “early recognition system” to detect so-called “disinformation campaigns.”
The new measures include a law to allow the monitoring of financing to so-called extremist groups, a ban on so-called “far-right extremists” from owning weapons, a general ban on semi-automatic weapons, easier dismissal of public servants who are “far-right,” and a detection system for alleged bots that “attempt to manipulate the free formation of opinions.”
“We want to use all the instruments of the rule of law to protect our democracy,” Faeser said in an official statement. “We want to break up extreme right networks and take away their income streams and their weapons,” she said, adding: “No one who donates to a right-wing extremist organization should be able to rely on remaining undiscovered.”
Faeser further claimed that: “German right-wing extremists and foreign autocrats have one thing in common: They want to stoke rage and divide, above all through disinformation.”
The announcement comes as the German nationalist populist party AfD (Alternative for Germany) continues to surge in the polls. Last year, it was reported that a third of Europeans are voting for populist parties, and right-wing populist parties are predicted to sweep the 2024 European elections.
