The so-called ‘Citizens of the Reich’, where there were also extreme right-wingers, wanted to sow chaos with attacks on electrical towers throughout the country
The German Police dismantled a group in which anti-vaccine and far-right activists of the so-called ‘Citizens of the Reich’ were mixed, whose purpose was to kidnap the Minister of Health, the Social Democrat Karl Lauterbach, and sow chaos with attacks against electrical towers throughout the world. country. “We are facing a group that brings together advocates of conspiracy theories, opponents of vaccines against covid and radicals such as the ‘Citizens of the Reich'”, warned the head of the Criminal Police of the ‘land’ of Rhineland Palatinate, Johannes Kunz.
The prosecutor’s office of that ‘land’ in the west of the country coordinated the operation, in which 50 homes were searched and four individuals were arrested, including its leader, a 55-year-old man. Likewise, a summary was opened against twelve suspected members of the group.
They are accused of plans to kidnap the politician, which included “disarming” his bodyguards. Lauterbach is a virologist who defends the utmost caution against the pandemic. He became a minister with the formation of the Olaf Scholz government, but had already been a prominent presence in the German media during conservative Angela Merkel’s handling of the crisis.
The group is also accused of plotting sabotage and attacks against electrical towers, with the aim of causing a blackout and unleashing panic. They aspired to create “civil war-like situations,” according to the prosecution, and even to overturn the German constitutional order.
In the course of the searches carried out both in that ‘land’ and in Bavaria, to the south, and Brandenburg, next to Berlin, 22 weapons have been seized, including several Kalashnikovs, ammunition, gold bars, silver coins and currency, in addition to counterfeit covid mobile phones and passports.
They communicated through a chat called United Patriots, or also ‘Deutschland Tag X’ -Germany Day X-, with about 70 members. In their communications, they exchanged plans to “tear down” the constitutional order and celebrated Russian President Vladimir Putin as a hero, who in their opinion, in addition to marching on Ukraine, should march on Germany.
The ‘Reichbürger’ or Citizens of the Reich is a radical group that recognizes neither the borders, nor the authorities nor the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). It has existed since the 1980s, although it was from 2013 when they began to be taken seriously by the secret services of the Interior. Until then it was considered a somewhat esoteric group, without a clear structure or militancy. In 2020 they staged a threat of “assault” on the headquarters of the Bundestag, the German Parliament, precisely at the end of a protest march against restrictions then in force due to covid.
The secret services of the Interior have repeatedly warned of its ability to blend in with the most diverse protest movements. The mobilizations of anti-vaccines or citizens dissatisfied with the restrictions, at the height of the pandemic, were fertile ground for the German far-right as a whole. Its only parliamentary arm is the Alternative for Germany (AfD), currently the fifth force in the Bundestag, but which in the previous legislature, under Merkel’s great coalition, had the rank of leader of the opposition. In the extra-parliamentary sphere, they have multiple platforms, from small neo-Nazi groups to the so-called “comradeships” or radical cells at the regional or local level.
Lauterbach himself expressed his “consternation” at knowing he was the target of those plans. He stated, however, that this will not condition his public activity, since he considers himself “well protected” by the German security forces.
“The fight against the pandemic is being instrumentalized by the enemies of the State to try to destroy democracy,” he wrote, through his twitter account. Just two days ago, the minister had posted a video with a protest of fifty anti-vaccines right in front of his house.
The anti-vaccine movements came to gather tens of thousands of followers when public life was closed due to covid. In some cases their protests led to riots, for challenging the powerful police operations deployed in those calls.
In recent times they have lost virulence, but the so-called “citizen walks” continue to develop against the restrictions, even now that these have been practically completely abolished.
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