German authorities on Wednesday arrested 25 people suspected of joining a far-right terrorist group aimed at overthrowing the German state, in a major police operation.
The arrested suspects have been accused by the country’s Public Ministry of planning and orchestrating a coup since November 2021.
This type of preparation includes purchasing equipment, recruiting new members, and giving shooting lessons.
One of the surprises of the authorities was to discover that one of the active members of the group was a soldier from the Special Forces Command, in addition to several reservists. Military investigation continues.
Indeed, the investigation revealed that the far-right group tried to recruit members of the armed forces and police.
To carry out the operation, German authorities deployed 3,000 police and security forces in 11 German federal states, including Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Hessen, Lower Saxony, Saxony and Thuringia. Groups in Austria and Italy were also targeted by the search and seizure decision.
In recent years, amid a debate over how the far-right AfD party has become a political force in Germany, officials in Berlin realized they had to deal with another problem: the presence of neo-Nazis within the German military. .
In a report prepared by the German Ministry of Defense five years ago and sent to Parliament in Berlin, the government admitted that it analyzed 391 suspected cases of extremist infiltration of the barracks. Under pressure, the Angela Merkel government even stated at the time that it would take new measures and show “zero tolerance” regarding the cases discovered.
Tighter controls were adopted to evaluate recruits. Proportionately, the number of neo-Nazis in an institution of approximately 180 thousand people is marginal. However, the proliferation of disclosures in the German press about the incidents in which soldiers sympathetic to neo-Nazi groups were identified have restarted the debate about the existence of the far right in society.
source: Noticias
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.