Germany plans crackdown on far-left militants after Berlin power grid attack

Germany will step up efforts to fight left-wing militants after activists claimed responsibility for an attack on a power station in January that caused the longest electricity blackout in Berlin since World War Two, the interior minister said.



"Our security agencies will be significantly reinforced in the fight against left-wing extremism," the minister, Alexander Dobrindt, said on Tuesday.



He added that 1 million euros was on offer for information leading to the perpetrators of the January attack, which was suspected to have been carried out by a far-left activist organisation called the Volcano group. The incident left 45,000 households without power in freezing temperatures.



Germany's domestic intelligence agency will devote more staff to left-wing militancy, Dobrindt said, adding that new legislation is being prepared to expand the digital investigative powers of security authorities. The measures would cover automated data analysis, biometric facial recognition and the storage of IP addresses.



In its latest report, the domestic intelligence agency said left-wing motivated crime was up 38% in 2024 although the number of leftist violent crimes had fallen by 27%.