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(German Police conducting 25 raids, leading to 25 arrests) credit to BBC, the article can be found here
Over the past week, the world witnessed an incident that shook those with any historical knowledge to their core. It was revealed that a group of far-right "homegrown extremists" known as the Bundestag attempted a coup on the legitimate German Government last week. Late last Wednesday, the government deployed over three thousand law enforcement officers in raids nationwide, ending with 25 arrests. The coup aimed to take control of the Parlement, destroy the german government's structure, and replace the German government structure with a Monarchical system. The "ringleader" of the coup was a German Prince by the name of Heinrich Xlll, who would have taken over as the leader of the new government if the coup had succeeded.
Heinrich the Xlll, like many of his compatriots, was arrested last Wednesday and is now held by German law enforcement. The threat, while hopefully "de-clawed" has still brought a great deal of concern and fear to the situation, but it is clear that the German government took the necessary actions to address the coup plot and ensure that the German Government and democracy live and remain strong.
Bundestag, are they an extremist group?
It is hard to say if the Bundestag can be defined as an Extremist group however many global law enforcement agencies would define “Extremist activities are those which oppose our democratic constitutional state and its fundamental values, norms, and rules, and aim to overthrow the liberal democratic order and replace it with one in line with the ideas of the respective group.” The definition above points out that one way to be classified as an extremist is to oppose the current governmental system and wish to overthrow the current system and put it in the group's viewed system. The Bundestag group's goal was to overthrow the current system of government in Germany and replace it with their own government which was a completely different system that opposed every value of the current system. In simple terms, the Bundestag would be classified as an extremist group that would also be classified as a terrorist group in the eyes of the German government. Germany's Public General Peter Frank even declared the group to be a terrorist organization.
It is clear that the German government must now face the growing issue of Homegrown terrorism and extremists. The German government is not the only one that faces the growing issue of Homegrown terrorism and extremist groups, the US is facing a significant increase in threats of terrorism and extremist groups that are growing within the nation. The FBI and other US law and enforcement agencies both at the federal level and the state level have acknowledged that there is a substantial increase in the threat of Homegrown terrorism and extremist groups.
Democracies are to some extent at threat however many nations around the world are starting to identify that threats may no longer lay outside their borders and may instead lie within in the form of homegrown extremist and terrorist organizations. The threat to democracy is real and the nations of the world need to take action to combat the growing rise in extremists and terrorists within nations.
References
Adler, Katya. 2022. “Germany coup plot: The extremists who tried to topple the state.” BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63916809.
Adler, Katya. 2022. “Germany coup plot: The extremists who tried to topple the state.” BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63916809.
BBC source
CNN source
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