Germany: We Unmasked Plot to Plunge Country Into Darkness

A group linked to far-right movements in Germany plotted to "overthrow the democratic system" by trigging a nationwide blackout and civil war conditions, authorities say. The plot also involved kidnapping Health Minister Karl Lauterbach and other high-profile figures, according to the BBC. Authorities searched 20 properties in several states on Wednesday, seizing two dozen guns, including a Kalashnikov assault rifle; ammunition; cash in various currencies; gold bars; and forged COVID-19 vaccination certificates and tests, according to a joint statement from the prosecutor's office in Koblenz and Rhineland-Palatinate police. There were also "several written documents about the group's plans," per AFP.

Four people were arrested. A fifth suspect remains at large, per Reuters. All five German nationals, aged 41 to 55, are linked to the far-right "Reichsbuerger" movement, which denies the existence of the modern German state, and other movements in protest of COVID-19 restrictions, authorities say. Communicating in a 70-member chat group called United Patriots on the encrypted Telegram app, the suspects were "preparing explosive attacks and other acts of violence," the "kidnapping of well-known public figures," and the obliteration of the nation's energy infrastructure with the goal "to cause conditions similar to civil war and ultimately to overthrow the democratic system in Germany," authorities say.

Though different anti-vaccination activists are accused of plotting to murder the state premier of Saxony, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser says these "violent coup fantasies" represent a "new quality of threat," per AFP. "This is a small minority in our society but they are highly dangerous," Lauterbach said Thursday, noting he'd been given police protection. "This shows that COVID protests have not just radicalized but that this is about more than just COVID." Per AFP, Rhineland-Palatinate Interior Minister Roger Lewentz said some group members expressed support for Russian President Vladimir Putin, desiring that he would "be successful here in Germany so that other systems of government could take hold." (More Germany stories.)