Violent crime reaches historic highs ━ The European Conservative

Under Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, who during her time in office encouraged mass illegal migration, undermined the meaning of citizenship and persecuted officials who opposed her agenda, Germany experienced a historic high in violent crime in 2023 and a sharp increase in the proportion of foreign criminals.

The annual crime statistics report from the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), presented on Tuesday by Interior Minister Faeser (SPD), sparked strong reactions across the country after it became known that violent crime had risen to its highest level since 2009 and the number of foreign suspects had risen. Violent crimes rose in comparison to 2022 by 14.4%, Young freedom reported.

As has already been observed in recent years, foreigners, i.e. all non-German citizens, made up a significantly disproportionate share of all crime suspects at 41.1%, compared to 37.4% in 2022 and 33.8% the year before. On the other hand, the vast majority of victims, 75%, were German citizens.

In response to the worrying figures, opposition parties expressed sharp criticism of the left-liberal traffic light coalition's mass migration policy and called for a drastic change of course.

The deputy domestic policy spokesman for the Alternative for Germany (AfD), Martin Heß, called for a “radical turnaround” in migration policy. He added that the numbers show “a completely unacceptable failure of the traffic light coalition” and said that “Federal Interior Minister Faeser has obviously lost control of internal security.”

Hess' CDU/CSU colleague Alexander Throm made a similar statement when he told Deutschlandfunk:

It has long been known that the proportion of crime is higher among non-Germans and in the meantime it has increased significantly again. We need a correction to the current traffic light migration policy.

According to Throm, the course correction on immigration should include limited immigration, increased controls, fewer social benefits for asylum seekers, restrictions on the right of residence and more resources for the Federal Criminal Police Office.

The CDU has attempted a precarious balancing act by distancing itself from the “far right” while adopting many of the anti-globalist AfD’s hardline positions on immigration. CDU party leader Friederich Merz was criticized earlier this year for legitimizing the discourse of the “extreme right” by presenting a tougher immigration policy than his party under former Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“Germany has been a country of immigration for decades,” said Merz Reuters after the party conference in January, “one who integrated immigrants very successfully”. But he acknowledged that the country faces a challenge with poorly integrated immigrant groups, “often but not always of Islamic faith.”

Serious or unjustified criticism also came from the traffic light coalition. “Anyone who thinks that migration is not a problem for local society is actually making life in the Federal Republic more dangerous,” said FDP deputy leader Wolfgang Kubicki Daily Mirror.

Violent criminal incidents – those involving serious injuries, robberies and various sex crimes – rose 8.6% year-on-year, with authorities recording a total of 214,000 cases in 2023. The number of cases of dangerous and serious bodily harm rose to over 154,000. 6.8% more than last year and a record high. Although foreigners only made up about 15% of the population, they represented 41.2% of suspects involved in violent crimes involving dangerous and grievous bodily harm.

Cases of rape and other sexual offenses increased by 2.4%, with around a third of all suspects being foreigners, a proportional increase of 4.2% compared to the previous year.

Meanwhile, robbery crimes increased by 17%, with the main reason for the increase being a 22.4% increase in the number of foreign suspects. Almost half of the robbery suspects did not have a German passport.

Across all crimes, both the number and the proportion of foreign suspects have risen sharply. As with violent crimes, the number of non-German suspects also rose significantly to 923,000, an increase of 17.8% compared to 2022.

A strong upward trend can also be observed in non-violent thefts. Home burglaries increased 18.9%; car theft 17.5%; shoplifting 23.6%; and pickpocketing 11%. Of the 424,000 theft suspects identified, 187,000 or 44% were foreign passport holders, an increase of 22.8% compared to the previous year.

The responsible Federal Minister of the Interior reacted to the damning data with the words: “Anyone who doesn’t follow the rules has to leave.”

“We are seeing an increase in violent crime, more juvenile crime and more foreign crime,” admitted Faeser:

The zero tolerance rule applies here. In concrete terms, this means: quick proceedings and noticeable penalties. Foreign perpetrators have to leave Germany much more quickly. The strict deportation rules we created must now be enforced.

Further to the left of the political spectrum, the Greens blamed a connection between immigration and crime on the fact that foreigners often fall into “socioeconomically weak groups” – which are supposedly more likely to commit crime; a dubious but frequently used argument on the left.

“In my view, this is a mandate for politicians to carry out research into the causes in particular,” said Green MP Lamya Kaddor said on X, which also highlights the isolation of young people under COVID and a resulting “Right-wing extremism”

Isolation and loneliness can make children and young people in such challenging situations more susceptible to extremist attitudes, which are associated with a higher level of violence.