Ultra-right growing in former East Germany

The German media reports that the Friedrich Ebert Foundation is informing the public that during the last six years, the number of people advocating opinions typical of the ultra-right in the former East Germany has significantly increased. The foundation says the proportion of persons holding such beliefs has risen from 6.6 % to 15.8 %.

In the German states which comprised the Federal Republic of Germany prior to 1990 (former West Germany), only 7.6 % of people share the opinions of right-wing extremists. This number is lower than the one found by the last survey into this question in 2006.

Respondents to the most recent survey were asked whether they agreed with claims such as "Foreigners only come here to abuse our social welfare state" or "Germany is flooded with foreigners because of the high number of immigrants." Almost 95 % of those surveyed said they are satisfied with the fact that Germany is a democracy, but inhabitants of the western part of the country are more gratified by this fact than their eastern counterparts are.