The Left Party is complaining about a lack of pressure to prosecute anti-Semitic crimes in Saxony. Last year, 267 such crimes were reported to the police, according to the state parliamentary group. The figure is based on answers from the Ministry of the Interior to regular minor inquiries on the subject.
This means that criminal hatred of Jews has hardly decreased after the record figure of 275 acts in 2023, stated Juliane Nagel, member of the state parliament. The focus is on the cities of Leipzig (87), Dresden (25) and Chemnitz (22).
In February, the State Office of Criminal Investigation announced that the trend in anti-Semitic crimes was declining for the first time in years. The number of cases had fallen last year compared to 2023, but was still higher than in previous years. Exact figures have not yet been released.
Hardly any convictions - criticism of the judiciary
"In 2024, there were only five convictions for anti-Semitic offenses in Saxon courts, each with fines and one community service sentence," added Nagel's parliamentary group colleague Rico Gebhardt. "That's a whiff of nothing and an extremely irritating regression."
In 2023 and 2022, 16 people were sentenced in each case, and 26 in 2021, according to the data. According to the parliamentary group, these figures are also based on answers from the Ministry of the Interior. "The pressure of persecution - if you still want to call it that - is not even close to keeping pace with the development of cases."
The state association of Jewish communities recently complained that everyday anti-Semitism was on the rise. Representatives cited verbal attacks in public and spoke of the fear of openly wearing symbols of Judaism as well as hate mail in the mailbox.
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