Europe|A Plot to Overthrow Germany’s Government Heads to Court
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/29/world/europe/germany-far-right-plot-court.html
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A radical of conspiracy theorists and an obscure prince are accused of readying to onslaught Parliament and depose the chancellor. The archetypal proceedings starts connected Monday.
April 29, 2024, 12:01 a.m. ET
A twelvemonth and a fractional aft constabulary and quality officers successful Germany uncovered a crippled to overthrow the country’s authorities and regenerate its chancellor, the archetypal of 3 trials successful the sprawling lawsuit is acceptable to statesman connected Monday successful Stuttgart.
Most of the would-be insurrectionists were arrested successful December 2022, erstwhile heavy equipped German constabulary officers stormed houses, apartments, offices and a distant royal hunting lodge and made dozens of arrests. Those charged included a dentist, a clairvoyant, an amateur aviator and a antheral moving a ample QAnon telegram group. The German authorities contend that their figurehead was Heinrich XIII Prince of Reuss, an obscure and conspiracy-minded aristocrat who would person been made chancellor if the coup had succeeded.
Despite that idiosyncratic membership, the radical was good organized and dangerous, investigators said. Some of its members were erstwhile officers trained by German elite subject forces. One was a justice turned far-right lawmaker with Alternative for Germany, the surging populist enactment known arsenic the AfD. The constabulary said the radical had stashed much than a half-million dollars successful golden and cash; amassed hundreds of firearms, tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition and a cache of explosives; and secured outer phones to pass erstwhile it disabled nationalist communications networks.
“All the satirical elements that are people contiguous successful this radical — elements of QAnon, the content successful U.F.O.s, esotericism, the thought of being capable to overthrow the strategy of the Federal Republic of Germany — should not distract from the information that this radical posed a sedate imaginable threat,” said Jan Rathje, a subordinate of a nongovernmental enactment that monitors conspiracy theories and right-wing extremism.
The proceedings scheduled to statesman connected Monday is the archetypal of 3 acceptable for this spring, and takes spot arsenic Germany wrestles with continuing fears astir a rising acold close successful its politics and a week aft the arrests of respective radical accused of spying for Russia and China.