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A large-scale German police operation among far-right groups and conspirators earlier this month led to the busting of a cell planning attacks specifically against the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, German prosecutors said.

In Germany, 25 members of the "Citizens of the Reich" (Reichsbuerger) movement were arrested.

One arrest was made in Austria and another in Italy, reported France Press.

The detainees are suspected, in particular, of "concrete preparations for a violent invasion of a small armed group in the German Bundestag", the prosecutor's office said.

"We suspect that an armed attack against the constitutional bodies was planned," Justice Minister Marco Buschmann commented on Twitter, referring to a "large-scale anti-terrorist operation."

Nearly 3,000 law enforcement officers carried out more than 130 raids in Germany.

Although the name "Citizens of the Reich" suggests a connection to the Nazi era, it is actually a reference to the first modern pan-German state, formed when King Wilhelm I of Prussia and his chancellor Otto von Bismarck united many smaller countries into a single empire or " Reich" in 1871, notes the Associated Press.

"Reich Citizens" believe that the division of Germany by the Allied Powers after World War II and the subsequent formation of democratic states was illegal, and claim that the original "Reich" still exists.

Johannes Kiss of the Else Frenkel-Brunswick Institute for the Study of Democracy in Leipzig said the rise of the Reich Citizens movement reflects changes that have taken place in recent years on the far-right of the political spectrum.

Where open opposition to the existing order used to be an extreme position, now anger at restrictions imposed during the coronavirus pandemic has proved fertile ground for anti-government sentiment, he added.

Federal prosecutors said some of those arrested had specific plans to infiltrate the German parliament with weapons.

Such an attack would be facilitated by the fact that one of the accused conspirators – Birgit Malsack-Winkemann – is a former MP from the Alternative for Germany party and knows the Bundestag building very well.

Prosecutors said the group intended to make Malsack-Winkemann justice minister after the coup, and the new government would have been headed by Prince Heinrich Thirteen.

The 71-year-old member of the Reus family, who continues to use the title "prince" even though Germany abolished the monarchy's official role more than a century ago, has been identified as one of the ringleaders of the plot, authorities said.

Some people in Germany have questioned whether the suspected militants could actually carry out any serious attack.

The fact that many Germans feel such concerns says more about the fragile state of the national psyche at the moment than about the stability of the country's democratic institutions, Politico magazine commented.

Germany is highly sensitive to right-wing extremism because of its Nazi past and repeated acts of violence by neo-Nazis in recent years, including the assassination of a local politician and a deadly attack on a synagogue in 2019, BTA writes.

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While there is no doubt that a group like the one Prince Heinrich is said to have organized could lead to the killing of people, it is still unlikely that it could threaten the stability of the EU's most populous country.

Germany's very federal structure, imposed on the country after World War II to prevent centralization of power (each of Germany's 16 states, for example, has its own police force), would make it difficult for even a well-organized conspiracy to overthrow the government.

Royce's motley crew includes a former MP from the far-right Alternative for Germany party and a retired German special forces commander (who left the army in 1996 and has never seen combat), as well as an opera singer (tenor), a general laborer and a handyman. cook.

At one point, the group considered going into action on the day of Queen Elizabeth II's death, but it turned out that the participants were not prepared.

It is also not clear how this group would be able to take over the central institutions of a country with a population of over 80 million people.

Still, German terrorism experts warn that the combination of the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and Europe's energy crisis has put the country on edge.

"We will witness more such events," Peter Neumann, a professor at King's College London, told German radio.

"After the protests against the policies to fight the coronavirus pandemic, a well-connected swamp has emerged and now that scene is being radicalized," he added.

Kiss, the expert on far-right ideologies and movements, said those detained this month were likely not the only extremists in the Reich Citizens movement, which German security officials estimate has more than 20,000 adherents.

"There are other similar groups. They are at the same stage of radicalization. (These groups) may not be as dangerous because they don't have access to weapons, etc... However, we will see the emergence of more similar groups and , hopefully, also to their arraignment," Keys added.

Rosen Hristov