This article is part 2 in a series examining the contemporary state of left-wing political violence in Europe. Part 1 discussed the 42.7% increase in police-recorded violent left-wing offenses in Germany in 2025. This article uses a different lens. It looks at how the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Germany’s domestic intelligence service, defines the threat landscape and how it could develop through 2026.

This article opens a series examining the contemporary state of left-wing political violence in Europe. The series uses “left-wing political violence” as a conduct-based comparative category. National authorities classify such conduct differently: as politically motivated crime, public-order violence, anarchist or subversive activity, violent extremism, or terrorism. Country-specific statistics are therefore presented under their original official categories and are not treated as directly interchangeable. 

This first article establishes the German baseline and draws primarily on court proceedings and police statistics on violent offenses attributed to a left-wing political motivation. 

Dr Hans-Jakob Schindler and Alexander Ritzmann are joined by journalist and author Nicholas Potter—who has faced death threats and intimidation because of his work—to discuss the rise in left-wing extremism and antisemitism. They talk about groups on the left that put aside ideological differences to create larger networks united in anti-democratic, illiberal and antisemitic causes. 

This blog is the fourth in a short series in which CEP aims to highlight the distinguishing characteristics of this extremist and terrorist movement and address individual case studies. Previous blog entries in this series can be found here, here, and here. 

The Autonome (Autonomous) movement, sometimes categorized as a subculture, ideology, or network of groups, exemplifies the fluidity of the left-wing extremist milieu in Europe. Despite being officially recognized as a threat by German and Austrian domestic intelligence agencies, this extremist phenomenon is little known outside of this context. The autonomous scene is internally highly diverse and has inspired offshoot groups with similar ideologies, as well as ideologically opposing groups that co-opt autonomous tactics and visuals. 

This blog is the third in a short series in which CEP aims to highlight the distinguishing characteristics of this extremist and terrorist movement and address individual case studies. Previous blog entries in this series can be found here and here.

Recent left-wing terrorist attacks, including an attempted bomb attack on a courthouse in Greece, an arson attack on an auto factory in Germany, and multiple attacks on communication infrastructure in Italy, have brought renewed attention to the left-wing extremist scene. In contrast to the groups that fueled the wave of left-wing extremist and terrorist violence of the 1970s and 1980s, which were characterized by organized cells, the current left-wing extremist scene has adopted different organizational structures, taking advantage of modern forms of communication and networking, particularly dedicated news media sites.

This blog is the second in a short series in which CEP aims to highlight the distinguishing characteristics of this extremist and terrorist movement and address individual case studies. The first can be found here.

The case of Lina E. and her fellow group members—the perpetrators of some of the most prominent left-wing attacks in Germany since the Red Army Faction—captured the attention of the German press from 2021 to 2023. This string of violent attacks, however, may have been connected to a much wider network of left-wing extremists than previously thought.