Elected AfD official among 8 arrested over alleged German far-right plot

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An elected official with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) was among eight people arrested as part of an alleged extremist plot to seize areas in the country’s east and carry out ethnic cleansing against “unwanted” groups.

German media named Kurt Hättasch, an AfD councillor in Grimma, a town in the eastern state of Saxony, as one of those detained as part of a vast police operation on Tuesday. The reports were confirmed to the Financial Times by a person familiar with the investigation.

The eight suspects, some of whom were aged under 21, were taken into custody after being detained at locations around Leipzig and Dresden, in Saxony, as well as in Poland.

Federal prosecutors said the men had “racist, antisemitic and partially apocalyptic ideas” that were driven by Nazi ideology and the belief that Germany was nearing collapse.

“Its members are united in a profound rejection of the liberal democratic constitutional order of the Federal Republic of Germany,” they said.

The wave of arrests follow several alleged extremist plots in Germany in recent years — as well as the latest in a long line of scandals to confront the AfD.

Earlier this year, mass protests followed reports by investigative media outlet Correctiv that a group of AfD politicians had met extremist activists to discuss the idea of “remigration” or mass deportations of foreigners. The party has also faced criminal investigations over its links to Russia and China.

The scandals have done little to dent support for the party, which came second in Germany in this year’s European elections. It came first in elections in the east German state of Thuringia, and second in nearby Saxony and Brandenburg.

The AfD said it was aware of the reports about Hättasch’s arrest.

A spokesperson for the party’s division in Saxony, which has been classified by German intelligence as an extremist organisation, said it supported democracy.

“We have nothing in common with such an alleged neo-Nazi ‘separatist group’, neither in terms of content nor organisation,” the spokesperson said, adding Hättasch would be expelled from the party if the allegations were proven.

Ute Kabitzsch, deputy mayor of Grimma, said: “We are deeply concerned about the suspicions of [a councillor’s] possible involvement in a rightwing extremist organisation. It was completely unforeseeable that a city council member could be involved in this connection.”

Thomas Haldenwang, head of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, said the arrests also demonstrated “the persistently high danger to the internal security of Germany that comes from rightwing extremism”.

The country has been grappling with the growing threat of rightwing radicalism over the past decade, which has seen members of minority groups targeted in multiple fatal attacks, while neo-Nazi activists have infiltrated police and special forces.

In late 2022, two dozen people — including former and active members of the police and armed forces — were arrested for allegedly planning a coup d’état as part of a movement known as the Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich), which rejects Germany’s postwar order.

There was no connection between Tuesday’s arrests and previous plots, said a person familiar with the investigation.

In a statement announcing the raids, prosecutors said two of those detained had founded an organisation called the “Saxonian Separatists” and were convinced that the government and society would implode on an unspecified “Day X”.

The men are accused of planning to take control of parts of Saxony, and possibly other parts of eastern Germany, and establish governmental and societal structures inspired by national socialism. Prosecutors added that, according to their alleged plans, “if necessary, unwanted groups of people would be removed from the area by means of ethnic cleansing”.

The organisation had conducted paramilitary activities, prosecutors said, including repeatedly training in combat gear and practising urban warfare, firearms handling, nocturnal marching and patrolling.

It had procured military hardware such as camouflage fatigues, combat helmets, gas masks and bulletproof vests.

Searches of 20 locations continued on Tuesday, prosecutors said, with police targeting seven more suspects in raids that involved more than 450 law enforcement officers.

Some of the premises being searched were in Austria. Those arrested were due to be brought before the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe on Tuesday and Wednesday.