Germany vows to step up crackdown on far-right coup plotters

BERLIN

Germany’s interior minister on Saturday vowed to intensify a crackdown on a far-right group behind a recent failed coup plot.

Nancy Faeser told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper she wants to continue the “tough approach against enemies of the state” after this month’s large-scale raids on the Reichsburger (Reich Citizens) network.

“We will find more. The fact that there are now parallel societies, even in supposedly bourgeois, wealthy milieus, with people who have become radicalized in their contempt for our democracy, who cling to conspiracy ideologies and fantasies of subversion and do not shy away from violence – we know that, and we have that we keep a very close eye on it,” she said.

Last week, German prosecutors arrested 25 suspects, accusing 22 of them of being a member of a terrorist organization that aimed to overthrow the government and seize power.

More than 50 people are reportedly being investigated for links to the plot, among them current and former members of the police force and ex-military officers.

The conspirators, who included far-right extremists, conspiracy theorists, and gun enthusiasts, wanted to form 286 so-called “homeland security companies” that would carry out arrests and executions after a coup, according to reports.

Prosecutors have identified Heinrich Reuss – a descendant of a noble family, who is also known as Prince Heinrich XIII – as the group’s leading figure.

He allegedly held various meetings with the plotters in his small castle in Saaldorf, in the central German state of Thuringia, and was planning to become Germany’s leader after the coup.

Most of the suspects were Reichsburger followers, who reject the legitimacy of the German government and believe that the country is governed by members of a so-called “deep state.”