German MPs have called for increased security measures at the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament, following nationwide raids on members of a far-right group suspected of planning a coup.
Bundestag Vice President Katrin Goring Eckard said authorities are «carefully examining what security measures» need to be «adapted» for the Bundestag. «We will address the issue in all the decisive bodies,» she said in statements reported by dpa.
Social Democrat MP Sebastian Hartmann has also called for a reassessment of parliament’s security. «After the arrest of a former AfD deputy who wanted to storm the Bundestag, her existing contacts (at the seat) must be checked urgently,» he explained.
The chairman of the parliamentary body for the control of the secret services, Green MP Konstantin von Notz, has stated that the security concept of the Bundestag is not designed for «constitutional enemies with access privileges» to the Chamber to be elected.
«We must increase the concept of protection of the Budestag without sabotaging the daily life of the democratic deputies,» he has argued in statements to the news portal RND.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday called the alleged involvement of a former lawmaker «very bad,» but stressed that the consequences depended on «autonomous decisions of the authorities» in the country, «each of which weighs the matter on a legal basis.»
The macro police operation arrested 25 individuals–including a former AfD party deputy for alleged involvement–who intended to «use military means» against state representatives and subsequently form their own government.
The Prosecutor’s Office detailed that operations are underway to arrest a total of 52 people. This group sought to form a «transitional military government» that would «negotiate the new order in Germany with the victorious Allied powers in World War II, in line with the classic Reich narrative.»
