Germany assesses credibility of rightwing coup plot amid further arrests

Germany is trying to get the measure of how imminent a threat to the state was posed by the rightwing terror ring exposed on Wednesday, as police made further arrests in connection with the coup plot.

In their biggest ever raid targeting rightwing extremists, German authorities arrested 25 people suspected of plotting to overthrow the government, install a shadow regime led by a 71-year-old aristocrat, and seek talks with Russia to renegotiate its post-second world war settlement.

Whether the group really had the capacity to turn its power fantasies into reality, however, has been hotly debated.

The KSK has been the source of a steady stream of far-right scandals in recent years, leading to calls for it to be disbanded. In 2020, a KSK company was dissolved after police seized weapons and ammunition during a raid on the property of one of its soldiers in the eastern state of Saxony.

In the former member of parliament Malsack-Winkemann, they allegedly had a co-conspirator who would have been familiar with the security arrangements of the Bundestag and retained an access pass for former MPs.