Police have raided premises in Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland as part of a search for evidence that far-right organisation the Werewolf Squad is planning terrorist attacks.
Germany’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office claimed that the group’s aim is to undermine the country’s political system and that “terrorist acts of violence” may well have been planned. The Office alleged that the group had developed an electronic encryption programme.
This is not the first instance of far-right groups threatening Germany, as the Neo-Nazi group, the National Socialist Underground (NSU) were discovered in 2011 and suspected of murdering 10 people - eight Turks, a Greek and a German policewoman - between 2000 and 2007.
Politically, the far-right is weak in Germany, yet experts have been warned of the threat that Hitler-inspired radicals may recruit the young and jobless to their cause, those from the former Communist East in particular.
Anetta Kahane, head of the pro-democracy Amadeu Antonio Foundation, says that “to root them out, there still needs to be a change in culture in the German establishment, and real determination. It is clear that the NSU is not the only far-right group capable of violence. They are organised, they have no problem getting weapons and they are a permanent danger.”
