Interior Minister: Those arrested are not "crazy" but suspected terrorists

Germany intends to tighten gun laws after the plot to overthrow the government

German police officers at the place where the suspects were arrested.

Reuters

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany plans to tighten gun laws after a suspected far-right group plot to violently overthrow the government to install a former royal as leader, German Interior Minister Nancy Weser said in an interview published yesterday.

German police arrested 25 people last week on suspicion of involvement in the plot, which has shocked many in one of Europe's most stable democracies.

Many of the suspects belong to the "Reich Citizens' Movement," which prosecutors say rejects the existence of the modern German state.

In an interview with Bild am Sonntag newspaper, the interior minister said that the movement poses a growing threat to Germany, given the expansion of its base from 2,000 to 23,000 last year.

"These are not insane, harmless people, but terrorist suspects who are now in pre-trial detention," the newspaper quoted the minister as saying.

"We want all authorities to apply maximum pressure to disarm," Weser told the newspaper, noting that this is why the government will soon tighten gun laws.

For his part, the local interior minister of the state of Lower Saxony in Germany, Boris Pistorius, said that he sees commonalities between the far-right German "Reich Citizens' Movement" and the right-wing opposition "Alternative for Germany (AFD) party".

“The Reich Citizens Movement is not the Alternative Party,” Pistorius told Bild am Sonntag.

But there are many common denominators, starting with the rejection of the modern state, passing through the pro-Russian stance, and ending with anti-Americanism.

He added that the AfD always succeeds in generating fuel for its own policy from such movements. "So we have to take that very seriously and keep a close eye on the AfD," he said.

Prosecutors said the suspects included individuals with weapons and knowledge of how to use them, tried to recruit former and current members of the German army and had stocks of weapons.

Before the raids, the authorities had already confiscated weapons from more than 1,000 members of the Reichs Citizen movement, but at least 500 more are believed to have gun licenses in a country where private possession of firearms is rare.

 German prosecutors asserted that members of the "Reich Citizens' Movement" reject the existence of the modern state.

The suspects attempted to recruit former and current members of the Bundeswehr and had weapons stockpiles.

Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news