federal prosecutor’s office Germany prosecuted for high treason against five right-wing extremists who allegedly planned to kidnap the health minister and were willing to kill people to overthrow the German government.

The group, consisting of four men and one woman, was formed in mid-January 2022 with the goal of “igniting civil war conditions in Germany through the use of violence”, hoping to overthrow the government and parliamentary democracy. He acknowledged that this could mean loss of life, the prosecutor said in a statement.

All five have been held since last year, when the details of their plan became known.

According to prosecutors, the five far-right extremists will operate in three phases:

1. First, they will cause a general power outage, sabotaging power facilities.
2. The next would be the kidnapping of Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach – if necessary, the murder of his bodyguard.
3. They will call a national assembly to overthrow the government and appoint a new leader.

It is said that their “ideology” was primarily influenced by a female member of the group, Elisabeth R. (ps German law does not allow disclosure of the identity of the accused), who was determined to abolish the current Constitution and revive the German one. An empire based on the Constitution of 1871 and the “system of autocratic government”.

The team consisted of two sections:

• “military squad”, which involved three men
• an “administrative branch” that involved Elizabeth R. and a fourth man.

Among other things, they considered using an actor to play the role of federal president or chancellor, and televised announcements of the dissolution of the democratic regime. They tried to recruit partners through the encrypted messaging app Telegram and set up at least four meetings in different German states. They also tried to buy weapons and explosives from the countries of the former Yugoslavia. Investigators seized two assault rifles and four Glock pistols.

Germany considers far-right terrorism one of the main threats it faces. The ideology of “Reichsburgers”, “Citizens of the Reich” who oppose democratic values, has experienced a certain upsurge after the restrictions imposed to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. In December, another group that planned to overthrow democratic institutions in the country was liquidated.

^{According to REUTERS, AFP, APE-MPE}