© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Police secure the area after 25 suspected members and supporters of a far-right group, which the Interior Ministry claims posed a terrorist threat, were arrested during raids raids across Germany, in Frankfurt, Germany on December 7, 2022. REUTERS/Til
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BERLIN (Reuters) – German lawmakers are calling for a review of security arrangements in the Bundestag lower house after authorities arrested members of a far-right group they say is preparing violent overthrow government.
German authorities on Thursday ordered the arrest of 23 people for questioning as they investigate the group. According to German prosecutors, a former lawmaker from the far-right Alternative For Germany (AfD) party was among those arrested.
Greens lawmaker Konstantin von Notz, chairman of the congressional committee that oversees intelligence agencies, said the Bundestag’s security arrangements were not made so that “enemies of the constitution” were elected to parliament.
“We must increase the concept of protection for the Bundestag without undermining the daily lives of democratic legislators,” he told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland.
The AfD condemned the efforts of the far-right group and expressed confidence in the authorities’ ability to shed light on the situation quickly and fully.
Social Democratic Party lawmaker Sebastian Hartmann told the Funke media group: “The Bundestag should also revisit its concept of security. Personally, I feel safe, but my confidence is not limitless. “
Investigators say the group, many of them members of the Reichsbuerger (Citizens of the Empire) movement, planned to make the nobleman Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss the leader of a new nation and found evidence that some members planned to storm the German parliament and seize it. lawmakers.
Members of the Reichsbuerger do not recognize modern Germany as a legitimate state. Some of them devoted themselves to the German empire under the monarchy, while some supported Nazi ideas and others believed that Germany was under military occupation.
Katrin Goering-Eckardt, vice president of the Bundestag, told the Funke media group: “For the Bundestag, we will look carefully at what security measures we need to adjust.
