The Youtube video shows Donald Trump’s supporters storming the Capitol and backing away from the mob like a police officer. Some commentators are happy about this. “Nice to see, I would like something like that in Berlin too. Long live the American President, long live Donald Trump, ”writes one. Another German-speaking user says: “When injustice becomes right, resistance becomes the first civic duty! I have total understanding for this tumult. ”You can also read:“ Look forward to more! Worldwide! Are you disrupting order with Corona? For that you get chaos! “
The storm on the Capitol and such applause from Trump fans in Germany worried the security authorities. What happened in Washington “will motivate right-wing extremists, Reich citizens and radical corona deniers”, said the President of the Thuringian constitutional protection, Stephan Kramer, on Thursday the Tagesspiegel. The extremists hoped “if something like this is possible in the USA, the model country of democracy, and the security forces could not stop the storm, then we can do it”.
The head of the protection of the constitution sees his concerns confirmed by the statements of right-wing extremists and other Trump fans. On the NPD’s Facebook page and on YouTube, users openly welcome the attack on the Capitol. “Respect and respect for the TRUMP supporters!”, “We can take an example from them” and “This is how it has to happen here,” wrote commentators on the NPD side.
A plan for the “overthrow of the regime”
The editor-in-chief Jürgen Elsässer published “five remarks” on the storming of the Capitol in the new right “Compact Magazine”, which is listed as a “suspected case” by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. He too shows sympathy: the “great patriots” would not have known what other way to do, he writes. “The storming of a parliament by demonstrators to initiate a revolution” could also work, but it must be better organized. “When it comes to the sausage, that is, to overthrow the regime, you need a plan and a kind of general staff.” It is striking how openly Alsatian dreams of revolution here.
The solidarity with the anti-democratic rioters in the USA was questionable, was heard in the security authorities from other experts who did not want to be named. The danger is increasing that radicalized individual perpetrators in Germany feel encouraged to carry out attacks. A high-ranking expert warned that lists of politicians who spoke out in favor of vaccination were circulating on the Internet. The victims should apparently be intimidated. They could also become a target for fanatics, for whom the militant protest of Trump supporters in the USA is an incentive.
Especially the supporters of the conspiracy-ideological QAnon movement are watching very closely what is happening in Washington. The movement originated in the USA and then spilled over to Germany. Her followers believe that an elite kidnaps children in order to extract a special substance from their blood. You see a kind of savior in Trump. Trump also plays a major role among the self-proclaimed “lateral thinkers” who have been demonstrating against the corona measures in this country for months.
[Wenn Sie aktuelle Nachrichten aus Berlin, Deutschland und der Welt live auf Ihr Handy haben wollen, empfehlen wir Ihnen unsere App, die Sie hier für Apple- und Android-Geräte herunterladen können.]
Many of them are convinced that Trump is the real winner of the US election. Experts fear that the final failure of Trump could lead to further radicalization of his supporters in this country as well.
But can something similar to what happened in Washington also happen in the German Bundestag? The Thuringian constitutional protection chief Kramer recalls the attempted assault by Reich citizens and corona deniers on the Reichstag in Berlin at the end of August and warns that “the Bundestag and all state parliaments must now even more prepare for attacks”. In view of the increasingly heated mood at corona protests, “an escalation like in Washington is possible” in Germany. It is also to be feared that the inhibition threshold to attack politicians when appearing in public in the upcoming election campaigns is falling.
Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble now wants to examine what conclusions can be drawn from the events in Washington for the protection of the Bundestag. For this purpose, a report was requested from the German embassy in Washington on how the excesses of violence could come about within the Capitol.
Discussions about the security of the Bundestag also took place last year. After violent Corona demonstrators broke the barriers at the Reichstag building on August 29 and waved the Reich flag on the steps, the situation was again tricky on November 18 – the day when a large corona demo took place in the vicinity of the Bundestag and visitors to the AfD Members of the Bundestag filmed and harassed.
Better protection from ditches and fences
A spokesman for the Bundestag said: “Both during the events on August 29 and on November 18, the security of the buildings of the German Bundestag and the people in them was never endangered.” The Bundestag police have over 200 law enforcement officers and work intensively with the Berlin state police. “There are currently no plans to increase the number of staff for the aforementioned events, but closer cooperation with the Federal Police is planned.” It has also been planned for a long time to better protect the Bundestag with a ditch and security fences.
The fact that comparisons are now being made between the events mentioned last year and the storm on the Capitol is particularly uncomfortable for the AfD. She is trying to distance herself from the riots in Washington. The storm on the Capitol was a violent attack on the highest democratic institutions in the United States, said party and parliamentary groups. Anyone who equates the riots in Washington with those demonstrations “that last took place in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin and insinuates that our party sympathizes with these events is abusing the anarchist events for party political purposes in Germany,” it said. Party Vice-President Beatrix von Storch also announced that the attack on the Capitol was an attack on the rule of law. She wore a “Trump 2020” mask at the last AfD federal party conference.
–
