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After the NSU terror cell was exposed, the failure of the authorities was also the focus of the investigations. Interior Minister Seehofer draws a positive balance after dealing with the errors.
Berlin – Ten years after the NSU terror cell was exposed, Federal Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) believes that the necessary consequences have been drawn from the failure of the authorities at the time.
“The NSU complex was worked on in the federal and state levels. There were 13 committees of inquiry, two of them at the federal level, ”said the acting minister of the German press agency. It was not possible to answer all questions completely. “But the recommendations for action in the areas of police, justice, intelligence services and the promotion of democracy have largely been implemented.”
The National Socialist Underground (NSU) was blown on November 4, 2011, with the deaths of Uwe Bönhardt and Uwe Mundlos. Only then did the police establish that it was neo-Nazis who had killed eight tradespeople with roots in Turkey, a Greek locksmith and a young policewoman between 2000 and 2007. For years after the attacks, investigations had been carried out in the wrong direction.
Lots of mistakes repeated
The FDP domestic politician Benjamin Strasser contradicted Seehofer. “Not all the politically necessary lessons” have been drawn from the “systemic state failure of unbelievable proportions” that the NSU terror brought to light. Many mistakes were repeated in the Islamist attack on the Berlin Christmas market in 2016. The following still applies: “Between federal and state authorities and especially between the police and intelligence services, relevant information is passed on too late or not at all.”
When asked why his party colleague, the former Bavarian Interior Minister Günther Beckstein, initially left no trace of right-wing extremism, Seehofer said: “I don’t know anyone who didn’t want to solve the NSU murders from the start. But we realized too late that all these murders were carried out by a right-wing terrorist cell. We have been blind to this eye for too long. ”That must be said clearly,“ even if it hurts ”.
The NSU complex and Islamist terrorist attacks in the past have shown that networked authorities “are the be-all and end-all in the fight against terrorists and extremists,” emphasized the outgoing Minister of the Interior.
In the years since the NSU was exposed, right-wing extremism in Germany has changed its face. There are fewer riots today than in the 1990s, “but the scene is still militant and the potential for people has been increasing continuously for years,” said Seehofer. Fixed structures or groups often do not exist and are no longer necessary for individuals who become radicalized on the Internet. Seehofer concluded: “The finding is clear: right-wing extremism is the greatest threat to security in Germany.” Dpa
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