Washington is ready to lend support to Berlin in fighting extremism, the White House said after German investigators discovered a group of right-wing conspiracy theorists were planning a coup.
About 25 people suspected of planning a violent overthrow of the state were arrested on Wednesday during a large-scale police raid in eleven German regions.
The incident has raised concerns over far-right violence in Germany, especially since those arrested included several German armed forces members, a former MP, and an active judge.
Such worries were shared by the US administration, who offered their help: “We stand ready to help when it is needed,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday.
According to the prosecutors, many of those involved in planning the coup were motivated by the right-wing conspiracy theories of the American movement QAnon, which is also associated with the attack on the US capitol in January 2021.
Germany’s public prosecutor announced on Thursday that 19 out of the 25 arrested are in detention awaiting trial.
Interior Minister Nany Faeser, who came into office last year on a platform of fighting right-wing violence, said what is worrying about the group preparing the coup is that they had a “military wing, with people who used to be in the army and can thus handle weapons.”
She added more action is needed to rigorously exclude those working to overturn the country’s democratic order from the army: “It leaves me somewhat stunned that we did not do more on this during the past years.”
(Julia Dahm | EURACTIV.de)
Source: euractiv.com
