Draft law is being prepared
Faeser wants to uncover extremist financial flows
February 9, 2024, 1:12 p.m
After the Correctiv report, concerns about rising right-wing extremism are growing. In January, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced that she would be targeting the organization’s financial networks more closely. Now the legal hurdles for observation are to be relaxed.
In order to better clarify connections in right-wing extremism in the future, the hurdles for research into financial flows of extremist groups should be lowered. A corresponding legislative proposal that would lower the hurdles for the protection of the constitution is currently being prepared in the Federal Ministry of the Interior.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior said that the personal and financial connections in right-wing extremist networks “need to be examined more closely.” “The aim of the operational and legal expansion of financial investigations is that no one who donates to right-wing extremist organizations or supports them financially in any other way can rely on remaining undetected.”
So far, monitoring financial flows has only been possible if a group can be proven to have a connection to violence or if it is “incited to hatred or arbitrary measures against parts of the population”. The aim of the draft law is to expand the surveillance powers of the investigative authorities in the future to include potential threats to the free, democratic basic order.
Reassessment of groupings possible
Even if the project is initially about clarification by the intelligence service, in certain cases such findings could also lead to these funding streams being interrupted. In addition, the discovery of financial connections could, in individual cases, lead to a reassessment of a particular group.
In November, right-wing circles – including representatives of the AfD – met in Potsdam. The research network Correctiv clarified this at the beginning of the year. The meeting discussed, among other things, financial issues relating to the movement. The term “remigration” was also discussed. The report about the secret meeting triggered a nationwide wave of protests.