Introduction & Updates in National Landscape
High-ranking AfD members are also repeatedly fleeing from their party out of criticism of the pro-Putin mainstream in the party and the increasingly open fascist wing of the party. At the end of January 2023, the Hessian AfD member of the state parliament Claudia Papst-Dippel resigned from the AfD. (German: https://www.hna.de/lokales/frankenberg/volkmarser-ehepaar-dippel-kehrt-der-afd-den-ruecken-92053890.html)
The far right in Germany continues to try to lobby Putin’s Russia. This position results from their hostility to the West. At the end of January 2023, 70 Putin friends founded the association “Ostwind” in Berlin. AfD members of parliament, such as Hans-Thomas Tillschneider and Oliver Kirchner and Jürgen Elsässer, editor-in-chief of COMPACT magazine, were involved. (German: https://taz.de/Rechtsextreme-und-der-Ukraine-Krieg/!5909638/)
Over the turn of 2022/2023, there were several attacks with firecrackers and bottles on rescue workers and fire department members in Berlin. The attackers were mostly men, among them presumably many with migration history. Subsequently, there was a racially charged discourse around these incidents. Parts of the media, parts of the CDU, and the AfD tried to play politics with it. The background was also that the Berlin Constitutional Court on November 16, 2022, the elections to the 19th House of Representatives from September 26, 2021, because of massive irregularities declared invalid. The elections, therefore, had to be repeated on February 12, 2023.
January 2023 also saw anti-refugee protests, especially in rural areas. Often, there was an interplay between organized extreme right-wingers and racist citizens. For example on January 26, neo-Nazis attempted to break into the district council of Northwest Mecklenburg in Grevesmühlen. In the attacked district council meeting, the establishment of a container accommodation for 400 refugees in the industrial area of a village was decided. Against this, 700 right-wingers protested. From these, a group around Hammerskin Sven Krüger tried to storm the district assembly, which was prevented by the police. (German: https://taz.de/Ausschreitungen-in-Mecklenburg-Vorpommern/!5911709/)
In the federal state of Saxony, demonstrations against refugee accommodation occurred in several places (e.g., Strelln, Laußig, Chemnitz-Einsiedel, Dresden-Sporbitz, Kriebethal) in January 2023. In some cases, several hundred people gathered in the small towns. The “Freie Sachsen” mobilized the demonstrations. (German: https://www.belltower.news/protest-in-sachsen-messerstecher-deutschland-gmbh-und-schuldkult-145797/)
Transnational Activities & Group Interactions
Despite the ban, the “Identitarian Movement” activists from Germany and Austria traveled to Paris for the extreme right-wing “March in Honor of Saint Genevieve” on January 7, 2023.
In January 2023, the neo-Nazi micro-party “Der III. Weg” published an interview with Stephan (36) from Solingen, who fought as a volunteer first in the “International Legion,” then in the Russian Volunteer Battalion (RDK) and finally in the “Infantry Battalion Karpartska” on the Ukrainian side. In the interview, he describes himself as a “European nationalist” and claims to have contacts with Dennis Nikitin.
(German: https://www.belltower.news/ukraine-krieg-mit-dem-flixbus-zur-front-145459/)
The right-wing Christian “Renovatio Institute” based in Augsburg, the right-wing English-language magazine “The European Conservative” based in Budapest and the Burschenschaft Albia Wien held a far and Christian right conference on the topic of “Religion and Nation” in Vienna on January 20-21, 2023. The aim is to advance a nationalist-right-Christian synthesis. The magazine “The European Conservative” is the attempt of the Orban government to create a European right-wing movement. Announced speakers were Dr. Christian Machek (Germany, Renovatia), Prof. Dr. David Engels (Belgium/Poland), Prof. Dr. Daniel von Wachter (Switzerland, Evangelical), Prof. Dr. Lothar Höbelt (Austria, historian), Wolfram Schrems (Austria), Alvino-Mario Fantini, Prof. Dr. David Dusenbury (Danube Institute in Budapest), Prof. Dr. Ingrid Detter de Frankopan (Sweden), Andreas Kramer, Zoltán Pető (Budapest, Thomas Molnar Research Institute at the National University of Public Service), Dr. Stefan Lakonig (Vienna), Dr. Albert Pethö (Austria), Artur Abramovych (Germany, AfD activist), Prof. Dr. Felix Dirsch (Germany), Prof. Dr. Heinz Theisen (Germany, member of the Political Advisory Board of Bürgerlich-Freiheitlicher Aufbruch), Prof. Dr. Michael Wladika (Vienna), Simon Wunder (Germany, Renovatia), P. Dr. Edmund Waldstein (Austria, Heiligenkreuz University of Applied Sciences), and Prof. Dr. Thomas Stark (Germany). (German: https://www.doew.at/erkennen/rechtsextremismus/neues-von-ganz-rechts/archiv/jaenner-2023/christliche-und-voelkische-abendlandretter-tagen-in-wien)
Right-wing rock bands from Germany also performed at concerts abroad in January 2023. At a right-wing rock concert in Vilnius (Lithuania) on January 14, 2023, the band “Blutzeugen” from Germany also performed, according to the announcement.
The neo-fascist Jungeuropa publishing house based in Dresden announces that it has acquired the rights to the novel “RUSH” by Julian Ruzé, a member of the right-wing hooligan group “Kop of Boulogne.” The planned year of publication is 2024.
On January 21, 2023, Prague hosted a right-wing peace demonstration where Marcus Fuchs of “Querdenken 0351” from Dresden also appeared as a speaker.