"Germany arrests 25 accused of plotting coup"

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Twenty-five people have been arrested in raids across Germany on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the government. The group of far-right and ex-military figures are said to have prepared for a "Day X" to storm the Reichstag parliament building and seize power. A man named as Heinrich XIII, from an old aristocratic family, is alleged to have been central to their plans. According to federal prosecutors, he is one of two alleged ringleaders among those arrested across 11 German states. The plotters are said to include members of the extremist Reichsbürger [Citizens of the Reich] movement, which has long been in the sights of German police over violent attacks and racist and antisemitic conspiracy theories. They also refuse to recognise the modern German state.

Other suspects came from the QAnon movement who believe their country is in the hands of a mythical "deep state" involving secret powers pulling the political strings. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser assured Germans that authorities would respond with the full force of the law "against the enemies of democracy". An estimated 50 men and women are alleged to have been part of the group, said to have plotted to overthrow the republic and replace it with a new state modelled on the Germany of 1871 - an empire called the Second Reich. "We don't yet have a name for this group," said a spokeswoman for the federal prosecutor's office. The interior minister said it was apparently made up of an organisation "council" and a military arm. Wednesday's dawn raids are being described as one of the biggest anti-extremism operations in modern German history. Three thousand officers took part in 150 operations in 11 of Germany's 16 states, with two people arrested in Austria and Italy. Almost half of arrests took place in southern states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.
The federal prosecutor's office said the group had been plotting a violent coup since November 2021 and members of its central "Rat" (council) had since held regular meetings. They had already established plans to rule Germany with departments covering health, justice and foreign affairs, the prosecutor said. Members understood they could only realise their goals by "military means and violence against state representatives", which included carrying out killings. Investigators are thought to have got wind of the group when they uncovered a kidnap plot last April involving a gang who called themselves United Patriots. They too were part of the Reichsbürger scene and had allegedly planned to abduct Health Minister Karl Lauterbach while also creating "civil war conditions" to bring about an end to Germany's democracy. A former far-right AfD member of the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, is suspected of being part of the plot, and of being lined up as the group's justice minister. Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, who was among the 25 people arrested, returned to her role as judge last year and a court has since turned down attempts to dislodge her.
As well as a shadow government, the plotters allegedly had plans for a military arm run by a second ringleader identified as Rüdiger von P. They were made up of active and former members of the military, officials believe, and included ex-elite soldiers from special units. The aim of the military arm was to eliminate democratic bodies at local level, prosecutors said. Rüdiger von P is suspected of trying to recruit police officers in northern Germany and of having an eye on army barracks too. Bases in the states of Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria were all inspected for possible use after the government was overthrown, officials said. One of those under investigation had been a member of the Special Commando Forces, and police searched his home and his room at the Graf-Zeppelin military base in Calw, south-west of Stuttgart. Another suspect has been identified as Vitalia B, a Russian woman who was asked to approach Moscow on Heinrich's behalf. The Russian embassy in Berlin said in a statement that it did not "maintain contacts with representatives of terrorist groups and other illegal entities". Several violent attacks have been linked to Germany's far-right in recent years. In 2020, a 43-year-old man shot dead nine people of foreign origin in the western town of Hanau, and a Reichsbürger member was jailed for killing a policeman in 2016. The Reichsbürger movement is estimated to have as many as 21,000 followers, of whom around 5% are considered to belong to the extreme right.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63885028
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re:

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INVICTVS138 wrote: Wed Dec 07, 2022 12:28 pm
YankeeTarheel wrote:Unlike Trumpublicans, Germany doesn't tolerate that shit.
Well … not since 1945 (or 1990 depending on how you look at it ) anyways …


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Of course I meant since WWII and Hitler's insanity destroyed that nation and ONLY the US and our European allies saved Germany as it IMMEDIATELY went from being in "the center" of Europe to being the Eastern bulwark of Western Europe against Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe.

Germans know only too well the price of a totalitarian dictatorship.
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

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