Chancellor Angela Merkel said the German government is "very, very serious" about fighting far-right extremism that presents "a big challenge for all of us" after a man with anti-migrant views allegedly killed a regional official from Merkel's party.
Walter Luebcke, a long-time member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's party, was found shot in the head at his home on June 2.
Far-right extremists "need to be fought from the beginning without any taboo," Merkel said Saturday at a gathering of Lutheran Protestants in the western city of Dortmund.
Earlier, German government ministers extended a call for citizens to stand up against far-right extremists.
In remarks published Saturday in the German daily newspaper Bild, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said "looking away can be fatal — we must call out far-right terrorism by its name."
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said he wants to crack down harder on far-right crime.
Police arrested 45-year-old Stephan Ernst over the killing, acknowledging his previous convictions for far-right crime dating back to the late 1980s.
Prior to his arrest, German prosecutors believe there was a "right-wing extremist background" to the suspected murder of the leading member of the ruling centre-right Christian Democratic Party, who was known for his pro-migrant views.
Luebcke, who headed the Kassel regional government in Hesse, had previously been subjected to far-right threats after speaking out in defence of migrants at the height of the 2015 refugee crisis across Europe.
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