Свастика на шевроне: правый экстремизм в правоохранительных органах и бундесвере ФРГ

Abstract

The police, the Bundeswehr and the intelligence services of the FRG have been recently drawn into a series of high-profile scandals provoked by right-wing extremism and growing xenophobic attitudes among the ranks of the armed forces and law enforcement officers. The article is an attempt to analyze the reasons for the spread of right-wing extremism in the power structures of Germany, its main forms and the level of the threat it poses to society and government. As for the far-right-wing potential, the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution puts the estimate at about 1,400 representatives. Although this number seems to be less than 1% of the country’s total number of law-enforcement authorities, don’t let it confuse you. Even a small group of right-wing extremists who possess weapons, are specially trained and have access to classified information can become a big problem for the government. Moreover, consideration must be given to the clearly growing rates of nationalist and xenophobic attitudes. According to the author, there are various reasons for the situation, with the main of them being the shifts in public sentiment, as well as the specifics of the activities of the police and the army. The European migrant crisis of 2015 and the following societal divisions influenced the attitudes of the country’s security agencies, which did not approve the policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Additionally, constantly operating in criminal districts of large cities, mainly populated by Turks and Arabs, the police developed a negative attitude to all representatives of the migrant community. Furthermore, we should not forget that security agencies and the army are quite conservative by nature, and the crisis of state institutions inevitably pushes some «men of arms» to the far-right-wing camp, which promises to restore order. The article concludes with some recommendations on right-wing extremism prevention in the law enforcement system (spe-cial agencies performance improvement, adoption of education policy, etc.).