Germany: crackdown against the far-right movement and antivax
Karl Lauterbach, the German Minister of Health, here in December 2021 in Berlin, was reportedly the target of far-right and anti-vax movements that planned his kidnapping.
© AP / DPA / Bernd von Jutrczenka
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Mobilization against anti-covid measures has been significant in Germany for two years.
Certain particularly radical groups have not only made themselves known through polemical declarations or demonstrations.
A small minority even contemplated terrorist actions.
Yesterday, such a group was dismantled by the authorities.
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Kalashnikovs and pistols.
The “United Patriots” or the “Active Patriots” as their networks were called on Telegram messaging had an appointment yesterday Wednesday to recover these weapons.
But the seller was none other than the police who arrested a total of four individuals, reports our correspondent in Berlin,
Pascal Thibaut
.
The prosecution is investigating a dozen people and in total, around twenty searches took place in several German regions.
Weapons, ammunition, gold bars and silver coins, currency were seized as well as fake vaccination certificates from plans to overthrow the state.
This far-right group, in the wake of the anti-vax movement, planned attacks in particular against electricity networks to cause a long-term blackout.
A kidnapping of the Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, an epidemiologist very present in the media and hated in these circles, was also considered.
The minister, who said he was "
upset
" by this news, denounced this Thursday during a press briefing on minority extremists "
but very dangerous
".
This kidnapping project "
shows not only that the protests against the anti-Covid rules have become more radical, (...) but that in the meantime they are attempts to destabilize the state
".
►
To read also
: Karl Lauterbach, new German Minister of Health and pet peeve of antivax
The authorities have stepped up operations against the most radical fringe of the anti-vax movement, while far-right violence in general remains the most important threat in Germany against public order.
A vast crackdown against this movement took place at the beginning of the month.
In December 2021,
police carried out searches near Dresden
, following death threats circulating on Telegram's antivax pages targeting the region's minister-president.
The radicalization of antivax, taken over by the far right, worries the security services.
According to an SPD official, 15,000 to 20,000 opponents of health measures would be ready to resort to violence.
►
To read also:
in
Germany the trafficking of fake health passes, a new scourge
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Germany
Health and medicine
Coronavirus
Vaccines