Germany's domestic intelligence service has recorded the highest number of far-right extremists since it began tracking the phenomenon, with the total rising 17 percent to 58,700 individuals in 2024 — a jump of more than 8,000 on the previous year. Of those, around 15,600 are considered to have a propensity for violence, a figure that has drawn particular alarm from officials. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV, known in German as Verfassungsschutz) presented its annual report in Berlin on Tuesday, with BfV president Sinan Selen and Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt warning that German democracy was under "practically permanent attack" from both domestic and foreign adversaries.
The report attributes much of the surge in far-right numbers to growth within the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), a nationalist party that the BfV continues to list as a "suspected extremist organisation." The party's membership grew to 70,000 in 2025, and the agency estimates that around 28,000 of those members hold right-wing extremist views. The AfD was formally designated a right-wing extremist group last year, but that classification was suspended in February after the party successfully challenged it in court; a final ruling is still pending. The report also identifies approximately 26,000 far-right extremists within the so-called Reichsbürger and Selbstverwalter movements — groups that reject the legitimacy of the modern German state, its constitution, and its laws, while frequently promoting antisemitic and conspiracy-theory narratives. Far-right violence rose 9 percent to 1,395 recorded incidents, though officials acknowledged the true figure is likely considerably higher.
Authorities flagged a deepening trend of radicalisation among young people, driven in part by social media platforms including TikTok and Instagram, where both Islamist and far-right actors spread propaganda. Gaming platforms such as Roblox are also being exploited to reach children. "It is a challenge of our times that perpetrators are getting younger — in some cases we are talking about children," Dobrindt said. The report noted that far-right groups set a new record for recruitment concerts last year, using music events to draw in new members. Intelligence officials also raised concerns about the newly founded AfD youth wing, Generation Deutschland, established after its predecessor was formally confirmed as a "verified extremist" organisation by a court and subsequently dissolved.
Beyond domestic extremism, the report identifies Russia as Germany's most significant external threat, with the BfV describing a "full spectrum" of hostile activities including cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns, sabotage operations, and the recruitment of low-cost disposable agents to surveil targets and plan attacks. China and Iran were also named as active intelligence threats. The number of people involved in left-wing extremism rose by 4,200 to 42,200, with violence directed primarily at suspected right-wing extremists and police officers; Dobrindt cited sabotage attacks on Berlin's electricity infrastructure in early 2026 as one example. The number of Islamist extremists edged up slightly to 28,645.
The breadth of the findings has prompted the government to push for expanded powers and resources for Germany's intelligence services. "We need to ensure that our security and intelligence services become real intelligence agencies," Dobrindt said. With the AfD polling around 40 percent ahead of state elections in Saxony-Anhalt — an eastern German state — in September, a result that could give the party its first state-level government, intelligence officials noted with evident unease that they would need to "monitor the situation closely" should an AfD politician take control of a regional interior ministry.