A politician from the far-right AfD, among eight detained accused of planning a coup in eastern Germany

Among the eight detained On this Tuesday morning, seven of them in Germany and one in Polandas alleged members of a far-right terrorist organization, there is a local politician of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), according to media reports. The organization is accused of plan a coup d’état in the east of the country to establish a state and society oriented towards national socialism.

One of the detainees, identified as Kurt H.has been treasurer of Young Alternative since October, the youth of the AfD of Saxony, as well as a member of the Grimma town council, in that same federal state in eastern Germany, ‘Spiegel’ specified.

According to the AfD portal in the Leipzig district, Kurt H. is also part of the executive committee of the party organization, the weekly adds in its digital edition.

The arrest warrants issued by the investigating judge of the Supreme Court specify that the accused belong to an association founded in November 2020 and calling itself “Saxon Separatists”a militant group made up of between fifteen and twenty people whose ideology is characterized by racist, anti-Semitic and partly apocalyptic visions.

Four of those arrested – Jörg S., Jörn S., Karl K. and Norman T. – were part of the original members of the “Saxon Separatists”, to whom local AfD politician and another suspect, Hans-Georg P. ., joined no later than August 2022, and then in 2023, Kevin R. and Kevin M.

Spiegel He also points out that Jörg S. and Jörn S. are brothers and belong to the family of a well-known Austrian far-rightist.

According to the prosecution, the members of the group are united by a profound rejection of the democratic order of the Federal Republic of Germany and they were sure that it was on the verge of “collapse” and that the State and social collapse will occur on a “day x” yet to be determined.

When this occurs, the organization aspired to conquer by force of arms territories in Saxony and, where appropriate, also in other eastern German states to establish a state and society oriented towards National Socialism.

More than 450 police officers participated in the raid in Germany and as part of the operation, searches were carried out in around twenty homes, also in neighboring Austria and Poland.

According to the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution – the secret services of the interior -, Thomas Haldenwang, the arrests reveal “the great persistent threat that right-wing extremism represents for the internal security of Germany.”

He added that among the group’s members there are very young far-right extremists with links to far-right circles on the internet that glorify terrorists like the Norwegian. Anders Bering Breivikwhich left 79 dead, eight in Oslo and 69 in a youth camp on the island of Utøya, in July 2011.

Several of the suspects are also known by internal intelligence to belong to the New Right spectrum, extreme right parties or the neo-Nazi scene.