German defence ministry employee denies supporting extremists

Berlin (dpa) – An employee of the German Defence Ministry accused of supporting a right-wing extremist group denied the accusations on Thursday, after being relieved of his duties.

“I distance myself from the ‘Identitarian Movement’ and all right-wing extremists. I have nothing to do with these people and their thinking, I don’t have contact to right-wing radicals. I obviously stand behind our constitution,” lieutenant-colonel Marcel Bohnert told the newspaper Bild on Thursday.

The lieutenant-colonel followed a supporter of the Identitarian Movement and posted positive comments in response to his posts, according to research conducted by the ARD public broadcaster for its news programme Panorama.

The Identitarian Movement is a pan-European far-right group whose Germany branch has been placed under state surveillance for its racist ideology.

Bohnert told Bild he had made “a very big mistake,” adding “I was not alert enough, I trusted that what is being posted in my community is alright. That was naive. And I am sorry.”

Ministry spokesman Christian Thiels on Thursday described the individual in question as “an assistant without a management function.”

He was “responsible for a small part of the Bundeswehr’s social media activities,” he said, adding that an investigation was launched into the employee as soon as the first indications of the allegations emerged.

Bohnert said he was not in charge of the Bundeswehr’s social media anymore. “But of course I would like to do my job again one day,” he said to Bild.

He said that he sent screenshots of the online interaction to the Defence Ministry and was cooperating with the investigation.

Concerns have grown recently in Germany about right-wing extremism in the ranks of the Bundeswehr military, particularly following a scandal involving the elite Special Commando Forces (KSK), in which 20 suspected cases were placed under surveillance earlier this year.

Thiels did not provide any further details about the latest case at the ministry, citing legal reasons.

He stressed that Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has a “zero-tolerance” policy for right-wing extremism and that she set the bar particularly high for ministry workers whose duties include managing social media.