EXTREMISMGermany's Far-Right Populist AfD and the 'Reichsbürger' Movement
After a raid on members of a plot to violently overthrow the German state, questions are being asked about the links between the “Reichsbürger” movement the plotters belonged to, and the far-right populist AfD.
“The truth is that the AfD has long been the parliamentary arm of anti-democratic movements,” tweeted Katja Mast of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) after the arrest of the plotters on December 7.
News of the raid on members of the so-called “Reichsbürger” (sovereign citizens of the Reich) network of conspiracy theorists and extremists has raised uncomfortable questions about its links to the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD), which currently polls at 15%.
At the center of the furor is former Bundestag member for the AfD, Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, one of 25 suspects arrested in dawn raids across 11 German states last week.
A member of parliament from 2017 to 2021, Malsack-Winkemann had privileged access to the complex of parliamentary buildings in Berlin — and highly sensitive knowledge of security arrangements there. The recent developments serve as a reminder of an incident in 2020 when aggressive demonstrators against the COVID-19 restrictions managed to penetrate the Bundestag with visitors’ passes obtained through AfD lawmakers.
In January this year, a former far-right AfD lawmaker was charged in court after allegedly calling for the overthrow of the German state when he was part of the storming of the steps of the Reichstag in 2020, during protests against COVID safety measures.
The vice-chairman of the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP) parliamentary faction, Konstantin Kuhle, has now called for a review of Bundestag access rights for all former AfD parliamentarians.
Controversial Figure
A sitting judge on the AfD party’s Federal Arbitration Court, Malsack-Winkemann was earmarked to become justice minister in the new state headed by aristocrat and alleged ringleader of the group Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss.
Following her arrest, Malsack-Winkemann’s name was quickly removed from the AfD’s website.
“Operation Shadows,” one of the largest police operations in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, did not elicit much of a reaction from AfD co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla.
“We condemn such endeavors and emphatically reject them,” they said in a brief statement, adding that they had “full confidence in the authorities involved.”
There was no mention of Birgit Malsack-Winkemann — who Alice Weidel once praised as a “great politician.”
AfD Distracts from ‘Reichsbürger’ Links
The statement from the party leadership was in stark contrast to the heated debate going on in AfD party chat forums, which are full of claims that the raids were merely a PR stunt orchestrated by the security services.
