Germany's 2025 Political Violence Hits Record 85,837 Offences

Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt presented Germany's 2025 politically motivated crime statistics on June 9 alongside BKA President Holger Münch, recording 85,837 offences -- the highest total in the history of the PMK count. Far-right extremists committed 42,544 of those, roughly half the national total, including 1,598 violent attacks -- a 7.4 percent increase from 2024 and the highest level of far-right violent attacks since 2017. Left-wing extremist crimes rose 35 percent to 13,490, with violent attacks up 43 percent to 1,087. Dobrindt described the figures as an 'alarm signal.'

The same minister spent the day commenting on a separate incident that illustrated the report's categories in near real-time. Arsonists broke into the Reutlingen-West substation overnight June 8 to 9, set fires at multiple points using accelerants, and cut power to approximately 40,000 people and 7,600 buildings including a hospital. The case is being handled by Stuttgart's state security unit, the Staatsschutzzentrum, because a possible extremist motive cannot be excluded. No claim of responsibility was filed and no confirmed political attribution has been established, but Dobrindt said it was 'in all likelihood' arson and pointed to a connection with the left-wing scene. Baden-Württemberg Minister-President Cem Özdemir acknowledged that 100 percent protection of the power grid 'is not achievable.' Investigators drew comparisons to two suspected left-extremist attacks on Berlin's grid in September 2025 and January 2026.

Four leading German peace and conflict research institutes released the 2026 Friedensgutachten in Berlin on June 9, warning that modern warlords are undermining the international order. The report -- compiled by the Bonn International Center for Conflict Studies, PRIF, IFSH, and INEF -- named Russian President Vladimir Putin, US President Donald Trump, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as examples of leaders who use military violence as a normal instrument of politics. The institutes urged Germany and Europe to reverse cuts to development cooperation and deepen partnerships with the Global South to sustain a rules-based system, arguing that hard-security spending alone cannot restore stability.

On defence and fiscal policy, the CDU/CSU and SPD parliamentary groups announced plans to forgo the annual automatic pay raise for Bundestag members, saving roughly 500 euros per month per lawmaker, as a signal of austerity amid strained public finances. The bill was placed on the parliamentary agenda for late Thursday. On the same day, several German defence companies led by Airbus signed a letter of intent to develop a new fighter jet together, effectively launching an alternative German-led programme following the breakdown of the Franco-German Future Combat Air System project.