A neo-Nazi group is thought to have murdered at least ten people over the past decade. Have officials underestimated the threat of extreme-right terrorism? Have your say.
- 'Were security officials, politicians and society blind in the right eye?' – National (14 Nov 11)
- Neo-Nazi terrorism sparks calls for NPD ban – National (14 Nov 11)
- Neo-Nazi robbers linked to kebab shop killings – National (11 Nov 11)
In a new series on The Local, readers are invited to comment on a current topic, something that keeps coming up in conversation or simply a subject that engages, outrages or deserves a broader airing.
The self-styled National Socialist Underground (NSU) group claims to have directly killed nine foreign shopkeepers and a policewoman over a number of years and injured many more with a nail bomb.
Details of how they managed to hide from the authorities for more than a decade, while carrying out some of the country’s most notorious killings will no doubt emerge as the investigation continues.
But the questions are now being posed of whether German society and its authorities so focused on the threat of Islamist terrorism, that neo-Nazis were ignored, dismissed as provincial loonies, a spectre of yesteryear. Was the country looking in the wrong direction?
Would a ban on the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD) help or hinder attempts to fight far-right violence? Would banning the party drive fascists underground, or would it send a signal that nothing of this stripe is tolerated in Germany, making it simpler for authorities to crack down on them?
Could Germany be facing a wave of neo-Nazi terrorism – and if so, are its intelligence and police authorities up to the job of fighting it?
What do you think? Leave your comment below.