Concerns are growing about reports of right-wing extremist activity in the German police and armed forces -- but senior officers and politicians seem reluctant to deal with the situation.
Journalist Dirk Laabs has found evidence that far-right conspirators illegally received ammunition from government warehouses, stockpiled weapons, and made concrete plans for a coup attempt -- to be known as "Day X."
The attempt was supposedly to be carried out during a time of national emergency -- like the current coronavirus crisis. Some domestic security experts, including the Left Party’s Martina Renner, are worried about these developments. Renner says this may be the moment that the alleged plotters were waiting for.
In June 2019, several current and former officers of an elite police unit in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern were arrested, suspected of supplying one of these far-right conspirators with large quantities of ammunition. Investigators say that the ammo came from military and police units from all over Germany, including the states of Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia. Authorities in those two states have not yet been able to explain how the ammunition ended up in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Fears about right-wing activity among the German police and military have been growing for years. In December 2019, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer announced plans to expand and strengthen federal police agencies that are involved in the effort to combat right-wing extremism and terrorism.
