BERLIN (AP) — German police arrested dozens of people Wednesday, a self-proclaimed prince, a retired paratrooper and a former judge, accusing suspects of talking about the violent overthrow of the government without knowing how concrete the plans were.
A German official and a lawmaker said investigators had possibly detected a genuine conspiracy, a drunken fantasy or both. In any case, Germany takes any right-wing risks very seriously and thousands of police carried out pre-dawn raids across much of the country. .
“We are talking about an organization that, from what we know so far, is making plans to violently abolish our democratic rule of law and an armed attack,” government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said in the German parliament building.
Sara Nanni, a lawmaker from the Green Party, which is part of the German government, said the organization might not.
“More and more main points continue to be revealed, raising questions about whether those other people were wise enough to plan and carry out such a coup,” Nanni said in a post on the social network Mastodon. “The fact is that no matter how crude their concepts are and how desperate their plans are, even the attempt is dangerous!”
Federal prosecutors said the organization believed in a “conglomeration of conspiracy theories consisting of accounts of so-called citizens of the Reich as well as QAnon ideology. “QAnon is a global conspiracy theory with roots in the United States.
The scenario of the citizens of the Reich is under the control of the German internal intelligence firm since 2016. The authorities estimate that the loose motion has about 21,000 members.
Prosecutors said the suspects also believed Germany ruled through the so-called “deep state. “
One of the alleged ringleaders arrested Wednesday is Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss, a 71-year-old member of the House of Reuss who continues to use the name despite Germany abolishing any formal royal roles more than a century ago.
Federal prosecutors said Reuss, whom the organization planned to install as Germany’s new leader, contacted Russian with the goal of enforcing a new order in the country once the German government was overthrown. There is no indication that the Russians responded positively.
Police also arrested Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, a former lawmaker from the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
The Alternative for Germany, known by its acronym AfD, is increasingly under security surveillance because of its links to extremists.
AfD co-leaders Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel said they had heard about the alleged coup plots through the media and condemned them.
“We have full confidence in the government concerned and call for a full investigation,” they said in a statement.
Chief federal prosecutor Peter Frank said about 3,000 officials were involved in the raids at 150 sites in 11 of Germany’s 16 states.
Officers arrested 22 German nationals on suspicion of “membership of a terrorist organization,” prosecutors said. Three other people, in addition to a Russian national, were detained on suspicion of supporting the organization, they said. Another 27 people were under investigation.
One of those arrested was a soldier who was part of the staff of the German special forces unit KSK in the city of Calw, in the southwest of the country. The unit has come under scrutiny for what officials have called the far-right ideals of some soldiers.
Along with the arrests in Germany, prosecutors said one user is being held in the Austrian city of Kitzbuhel and another in Italy.
The latest suspect, a 64-year-old German national officer in the German army’s special forces, is accused of belonging to a criminal organization that aimed to “overthrow the German democratic order by any means, adding criminals, and updating it in shape. “of an unidentified state,” police said in a statement, adding that extradition proceedings were ongoing.
“Of course, there are many other people who stand up and tell confusing stories after drinking alcohol,” German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann said. acts on which the investigating judge issues a judgment of the Federal Court ordering the conduct of investigative measures”.
Some of the group’s members had made “concrete preparations” to whip Germany’s federal parliament with a small armed group, prosecutors said.
Wednesday’s raids showed that “we know how to protect ourselves with all our opposition to the enemies of democracy,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said.
“The investigation gives insight into the depths of terrorist risk within the citizens of the Reich,” Faeser said. “Only the continuation of the investigation will provide a transparent picture of the prestige of the coup plans. “
Officials have continually warned that far-right extremists pose the greatest risk to Germany’s internal security. This risk was highlighted by the killing of a regional politician and the fatal attack on a synagogue in 2019. A year later, far-right extremists took part in a protest. Against the country’s pandemic restrictions, he tried in vain to tear down the construction of the Bundestag in Berlin.
Faeser announced earlier this year that the government plans to disarm some 1,500 suspected extremists and background checks on those who need to obtain weapons as part of a broader crackdown on the far right.
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