Protesters demonstrate in front of the Reichstag, during a rally against government restrictions related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, in Berlin, Germany, Aug. 29, 2020. Photo: Reuters / Christian Mang.

A local politician in the east German state of Saxony has expressed alarm that the number of prosecutions for antisemitic crimes in the region remains visibly low, despite a year-on-year rise in the crimes themselves.

Kerstin Köditz — who sits in the parliament as a representative of the Left Party — on Friday told reporters in the city of Dresden that during 2020, there were just 14 cases of the local public prosecutors’ office successfully pursuing antisemitic assailants.

A total of 173 antisemitic incidents were recorded in Saxony out of national total of 2,275 in 2020.

Köditz remarked that the 2020 total marked a “significant increase for the fourth year in a row.”

“In 2019, 156 acts were reported, compared to 138 in 2018 and 118 in 2017,” she said.

She then pointed out that the 14 prosecutions undertaken in 2020 was the same number as in 2019 “and only half as many as in 2017, for example.”

Said Köditz: “The prosecution pressure is not even close to sufficient.”

Approximately 85 percent of the antisemitism cases in Saxony concerned so-called “propaganda crimes,” which involve incitement and using the symbols of banned neo-Nazi and far-right organization. The statistics also included 16 cases of damage to property as well as insulting or threatening behavior.

“One thing is clear: every act is one too many, no matter what area it comes from — hatred of Jews cannot be justified, there can be no tolerance whatsoever for anti-Semitism,” Köditz stressed.