Germany arrests 8 people over alleged role in violent far-right plot

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Germany has arrested eight alleged members of a rightwing terror organisation, accusing them of planning to seize parts of the country’s east and conduct ethnic cleansing against “unwanted” groups.

Federal prosecutors said the men had “racist, antisemitic and partially apocalyptic ideas” that were driven by Nazi ideology and the belief that Germany was nearing collapse.

The eight suspects, some of whom were minors or adolescents, were taken into custody early on Tuesday after being detained at various locations around the cities of Leipzig and Dresden, in the east German state of Saxony, as well as in Poland.

“Its members are united in a profound rejection of the liberal democratic constitutional order of the Federal Republic of Germany,” prosecutors said.

The wave of arrests is the latest in a series of extremist plots in Germany as the country grapples with the growing threat of rightwing radicalism, as well as the spread of disinformation and conspiracy theories.

Over the past decade, the country has witnessed a series of fatal attacks on members of minority groups and revelations of neo-Nazi infiltration of police and special forces.

In late 2022, the nation was stunned by the arrest of two dozen people — including former and active members of the police and armed forces — for allegedly planning a coup d’état as part of a movement known as the Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich), which rejects Germany’s postwar order.

Earlier this year, there were mass protests after the investigative media outlet Correctiv revealed that politicians from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) had met extremist activists to discuss the idea of “remigration” or mass deportations of foreigners from Germany.

There was no connection between Tuesday’s arrests and previous plots, said a person familiar with the situation.

They said two of those detained, who were not named in full in line with German privacy laws, had founded an organisation called the “Saxonian Separatists” and were convinced that the government and society would implode on an unspecified “Day X”.

The men are accused of planning to take control of parts of Saxony, and possibly other parts of eastern Germany, and establish governmental and societal structures inspired by national socialism. Prosecutors added that, according to their alleged plans, “if necessary, unwanted groups of people would be removed from the area by means of ethnic cleansing”.

The organisation had conducted paramilitary activities, prosecutors said, including repeatedly training in combat gear and practising urban warfare, firearms handling, nocturnal marching and patrolling.

It had procured military hardware such as camouflage fatigues, combat helmets, gas masks and bulletproof vests.

Searches of 20 locations continued on Tuesday, prosecutors said, with police targeting seven more suspects in raids that involved more than 450 law enforcement officers.

Some of the premises being searched were in Austria. Those arrested were due to be brought before the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe on Tuesday and Wednesday.