Germany is bracing for street protests by the far-left “Antifa” movement this week, after the conviction of Lina E., who was found guilty of physically assaulting neo-Nazis.
Twenty-eight-year-old student Lina E. was sentenced to five years and three months in prison this week for causing bodily harm and belonging to a criminal organization. She and her three co-defendants were found guilty of attacking and seriously injuring suspected right-wing extremists. These acts, the judge said, showed how far militant anti-fascist groups could go.
It is the first such case in for many years, but Germany’s domestic intelligence agency says left-wing extremism is growing. In its latest report, published last year, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) recorded a rise in the number of “violence-oriented” left-wing extremists of around 700 to 10,300 from 2020 to 2021.
