Germany’s interior ministry has sounded the alarm over a growing threat to members of the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), following a series of arson attacks and physical assaults carried out by far-left extremists.
In the latest incident, a car belonging to Bernd Baumann, the AfD’s parliamentary group leader, was set on fire outside his Hamburg home in the early hours of Monday morning. The blaze destroyed three nearby vehicles.
State security officials are investigating the attack as politically motivated, and an online statement posted on a far-left, Antifa-linked platform and ending with a death threat against Baumann and other AfD members is believed to be authentic.
The attack came just weeks after the Munich office of AfD MP Tobias Teich burned down in another suspected arson assault.
According to Bundestag data, there were 808 recorded attacks on AfD representatives between January and June this year—an average of 4.5 incidents per day—making the party by far the most targeted in Germany.
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