(MENAFN) A recent study highlights that while support for far-right extremism in Germany has declined, the threat to the country’s democratic system remains significant.

The proportion of Germans holding a clearly far-right worldview fell to 3.3% in 2024/2025, down from 8.3% in 2022/2023, according to reports. The earlier increase coincided with the mobilization of right-wing movements against COVID-19 restrictions.

Experts, however, caution that the level of explicit far-right beliefs remains elevated compared to previous surveys, which recorded lower levels: 1.7% in 2020/2021, 2.5% in 2018/2019, 2.9% in 2016, and 2.5% in 2014.

Conducted in collaboration with Bielefeld University, the study also revealed concerning trends toward the normalization of extremist views. About one in five participants exhibited ambivalence toward far-right statements—neither fully endorsing nor rejecting them. "This gray area of 20% has solidified compared to the previous year and shows an openness to antidemocratic orientations," experts warned.

Support for far-right views was notably higher among Germans aged 18-34, with 12.5% expressing explicit xenophobic attitudes. In contrast, the survey found 5.9% among those aged 35-64 and 6.5% among those 65 and older. Anti-foreigner sentiments were particularly pronounced in the country’s former eastern communist states, where 11.1% of respondents expressed xenophobic views, compared with 6.9% in the western states.

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