Germany's extreme right under pressure after attacks

The extreme political right in Germany is on the defensive and stands accused of inciting last week's racist attacks in Hanau and others with its anti-migrant diatribes. 

Some have even asked that the hard right be subjected to police surveillance. 

"We have known for a long time that words can be followed by action and the elected representatives of the people cannot shirk this responsibility," said the chairman of the chamber of deputies, Wolfgang Schauble, in an interview with the daily Handelsblatt on Saturday.

In his sights is the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which since 2017 has become the main opposition force in the Bundestag with 89 elected officials. 

It has played on stoking fear in the population following the arrival of more than a million asylum-seekers in 2015 and 2016.

"The problem is that the AfD knows no bounds," added Schauble, a member of Angela Merkel's conservative party. He goes so far as to call Bjorn Hocke, the leader of the most radical wing, a "fascist".

'Political arm'

The general secretary of the social democratic party SPD, coalition partner of the conservatives in Berlin, Lars Klingbeil, described the AfD as the "political arm"...