German security service panic-stricken

This is happening at a time when the nation is dealing with the consequences of the European elections in which the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) won second place.

"We are noticing a new increase in the number of violent right-wing extremists," agency head Thomas Haldenwang told dpa.

The Office for the Protection of the Constitution will next week present a report for 2023. The big jump of about 14.5 percent of registered extremists - that's about 38,800 people - Haldenwang attributes to the classification of several provincial AfD organizations as extremist organizations.

The agency registers about 10,200 members of the party and its youth organization as right-wing extremists.

The AfD was classified as a potentially extremist organization in March 2021. The party appealed, but lost a ruling by a higher regional court in May.

The state branches of the AfD in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia are already registered as extremist right-wing organizations.

Such a classification gives the services wider powers to monitor the party and its members.

The AfD won 15.9 percent of the German vote in Sunday's European Parliament elections and came out ahead of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's Social Democratic Party. It is also the best result of the party since its establishment 11 years ago.

The party is growing on an anti-immigration populist platform, profiting from the fear of the population at a time of economic hardship and focusing it on newcomers, economic immigrants and asylum seekers.