Study: One in three people think violence against rights is legitimate

Who is receptive to extremist positions? Why? And in which age groups are left- and right-wing extremists particularly strongly represented? The Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS), which is close to the CDU, investigated this in a broad study. The study is based on this star exclusively. According to this, one in three people find violence against rights legitimate, and the researchers also found some overlaps between those on both sides with an affinity for extremism. The surprising results at a glance:

Left-wing extremist positions continue to spread

Left-wing extremist positions are more widespread in Germany than right-wing extremism. Not only people who are politically far left have an affinity for this, but also supporters of the AfD, according to the KAS study on the spread of extremist views among the German population (“‘Only not that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution with me rings.’ On the spread of right-wing and left-wing extremist attitudes in Germany”).

According to her, statements from the area of ​​right-wing extremist ideology are much less likely to receive approval from the general population than those from the left-wing extremist spectrum. Sentences like “How foreigners behave here make me angry” (14 percent approval) and “German society is being infiltrated by Muslims” (12 percent approval) are most likely to find an echo.

Conversely, there is relatively broad popular support for anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist slogans. 42 percent of those surveyed agreed with the statement “The rich exploit the poor.” However, only four percent wanted to adopt the statement “The bourgeois state should be abolished”.

Right-wingers are more likely to be extremists than left-wingers

People who identify as far-right politically are significantly more likely to represent extremist positions than people who define themselves as very left-wing. One in five right-wingers agreed with the sentence “Only those who act radically can realize the true ideals in politics,” but only eight percent of those on the very left agreed. The statement “There has to be one person who alone decides where things go” was found correct by 22 percent of respondents on the right, but only five percent on the left.

There were overlaps between those with an affinity for extremism on the left and right when it came to the statement “There are groups of people that I hate.” This was agreed by 23 percent of those surveyed who saw themselves as far to the right politically, but also by 14 percent of those who saw themselves as far to the left. Even among those who see themselves in the political center, there was still 13 percent approval.

According to the study, acceptance of violence as a political tool is low. Only four percent of those surveyed completely or somewhat agreed with the statement “Violence against people is justified when pursuing political goals.” However, there is a high willingness to justify violence against the right. Around a third of those surveyed found the statement “right-wingers don’t have to be surprised if they get hit” correct, while the statement “left-wingers don’t have to be surprised if they get hit” was correct, while only 16 percent found the statement “left-wingers don’t have to be surprised if they get hit.”

According to the study, these sentences expose right-wing extremists

For the large study, left-wing and right-wing extremist positions were queried together and compared. For this purpose, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung had around 5,500 people surveyed by telephone (landline and mobile phone) and representatively from December 1, 2021 to April 11, 2022. For young people between 16 and 20 and Muslims, the sample was expanded to 500 respondents in order to obtain meaningful results. For the overall assessment, both groups were weighted according to their proportion in the population.

Right-wing extremist attitudes were surveyed across six dimensions, which were expressed in concrete statements. The sentence “Rich Jews are the real rulers of the world” stood for the dimension of anti-Semitism. The sentence “We should make sure that we keep German pure and prevent mixing of peoples” for racism. Other statements included “The Germans are superior to other peoples” (Social Darwinist attitude), “How the foreigners behave here makes me angry” (xenophobia) or “Muslims/Leftists/Jews don’t have to be surprised if they get hit” (Friend -enemy perception).

According to the study, these sentences expose left-wing extremists

Four dimensions were surveyed for left-wing extremist positions: rejection of the bourgeois state (“The bourgeois state should be abolished”), anti-capitalism (including “The rich exploit the poor”), anti-imperialism (“All wars are imperialist”) and friend-enemy- Perception (“right-wingers don’t have to be surprised if they get hit”).

However, a fundamental tendency towards extremism was also asked. These included statements such as “I don’t care what the state regulates. I have my own rules” or “There has to be one person who alone decides where to go” or “Violence against people is justified in the implementation of political goals “.

It was not enough to agree with a single statement. Only those who received an average score of more than 4 for five statements about general or right-wing extremism or for three left-wing extremist statements on a scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (completely agree) were considered by the authors of the study classified as “extremism-affine”. According to the study, respondents who achieved an average of more than 3 are “partially compatible” with extremist positions.

If you break this definition down to voter groups, the study shows that almost every third left-wing voter is partially compatible with left-wing extremist attitudes. Among AfD voters, only 16 percent are partially compatible with a general extremist attitude. However, the number of people who are open to more left-wing extremist positions such as anti-capitalist statements is higher here.

This age group is more likely to lean toward right-wing extremist positions

The researchers were unable to identify any gender differences in attitudes towards extremist positions. There were only differences in age. Younger respondents between the ages of 16 and 25 and older respondents over 75 years of age showed a greater tendency to make extremist statements than other age groups. The tendency to make right-wing extremist statements was highest among people over 75 years of age. Among younger people, people with a migrant background were more likely to express an affinity for extremism than their peers.

Muslims were more accepting of individual statements than the average. 43 percent of them thought that today’s society had to be overcome in order to have a good life (total: 27 percent). One in five rejected homosexuals as friends (total: 9 percent). Among both Muslims and AfD voters, agreement with the statement that German must be kept pure and “mixing of peoples” must be prevented was significantly more pronounced than among other groups.

When extremism is particularly dangerous

In their conclusion, the two authors, the sociologist Sabine Pokorny and the sociologist Jürgen Roose, come to the conclusion that “it is usually a small proportion of the population in Germany that agrees with attitudes close to extremism”. They don’t see this finding as a reason to give the all-clear: “However, it remains to be borne in mind that even a small proportion of the population with extremist attitudes can endanger democracy, especially if these people are concentrated regionally.” Many people in Germany are already two to four percent: “If the approval is 10 or 12 percent, this is already a fairly significant minority.”