Target practice in Bavaria, the establishment of military sports groups in Thuringia and Saxony, weapon caches and indications of gold reserves worth millions: After the raid on so-called Reich citizens, Attorney General Peter Frank reported to the Bundestag’s legal committee on Monday. The first results of the investigation gave every cause for concern, MPs from several parties said after the meeting.
The suspects from the Reich citizen scene, who are being investigated on suspicion of forming a terrorist organization, are said to have started to set up so-called homeland security companies in several federal states, which should be armed. The aim was to form 286 combat units in order to initiate a coup in Germany. However, the preparations were often only in the planning stage, it said.
SPD and Greens want stricter gun laws
The preparations apparently went particularly well in Thuringia and Saxony. But the group has also started building militant structures in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. Apparently, this also included their own official seal and uniforms – and a three-digit number of so-called “non-disclosure agreements” signed by people who wanted to take part in the coup plans – a sign that there were many accomplices.
About 90 weapons were found, ranging from crossbows and machetes to gas guns and rifles. In addition, the investigators are said to have found 400,000 euros in cash, gold and silver coins and evidence of a locker with gold bars worth six million euros. “But it is not yet clear how the gold bars can be assigned,” said the left-wing faction’s legal policy spokeswoman, Clara Bünger, after the meeting.
Demands are now coming from several parties to take tougher action against extremists. “We have to disarm consistently,” said Green Party leader Omid Nouripour on Monday in Berlin. “It’s unacceptable that so many gun licenses end up with those who want to tear this republic apart.”
The Greens are backing the plans of Nancy Faeser (SPD). The Federal Minister of the Interior announced at the weekend that gun laws would soon be tightened. The coup plans uncovered last week underscored the need for this, a spokesman said on Monday. Faeser now apparently wants to use the investigations to achieve a breakthrough in the long-awaited tightening of gun laws. In the legal committee, she was supported by representatives of the SPD. “We will tighten gun laws, enemies of democracy must not be in possession of weapons,” said SPD MP Johannes Fechner on the sidelines of the meeting.
The negative attitude of the Union is moving
However, the project encountered massive resistance from the coalition partner FDP. Group Vice President Konstantin Kuhle had announced that there would be no general tightening with his party. The state should not get bogged down in the fight against enemies of the constitution and turn against law-abiding sport shooters and hunters who belong to the “middle of society”. According to the FDP, the authorities could withdraw permits for gun ownership today. Stricter laws are not necessary.
In the attitude of the Union, which recently prevented stricter gun laws, on the other hand, the first movement came on Monday. In view of the new findings, she pleads for a tightening of the gun law, said the chairwoman of the legal committee, Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker (CDU): “Any restriction on privately owned guns is correct.”
The former judge should not only make friends in her own ranks. Because it was the domestic politicians of the Union faction who had prevented a reform of the gun law to the last. In the last legislative period, they let Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) run up against him in his attempt to restrict access to weapons for the mentally ill or extremists. The reform failed. MPs from the CDU and CSU also argued that shooting clubs and sport shooters should not be placed under general suspicion.
The proposal came from the Greens to involve the Office for the Protection of the Constitution more closely in measures. “It takes a rule failure for all people who are known to the constitutional protection as extremists,” said the Greens chairman in the interior committee, Marcel Emmerich Süddeutsche Zeitung. In his opinion, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution should be obliged to report observations of extremists to the weapons authorities, not only on request.
Leading domestic politicians made it clear on Monday that they still see many questions in the affair – and want to intervene. “It is clear to us that the investigation must be pushed forward very resolutely,” says Konstantin von Notz, the Greens’ domestic politician and parliamentary group deputy leader. “And we in Parliament will do our part.”