Opinion C Uday Bhaskar writes: A failed coup in Germany and the spectre of right-wing extremism

The suspects apprehended on December 7 are part of the Reichsburger movement (Reich citizens), whose members reject Germany’s post World War II constitution and have called for the current government to be overthrown and an imperial Germany restored. Prosecutors stated that the suspects had planned to storm the parliament building and execute the German Chancellor – bizarre as it may sound – and install a new regime headed by 71-year old Heinrich XIII, a former member of the aristocracy.

To their credit, the German intelligence agencies were able to keep the suspects on their radar for over a year and plan a comprehensive “swoop and search” operation across 130 locations and arrest the main conspirators. As many as 3,000 police officials were involved in this pre-emptive operation and the 25 suspects will be charged as per German law. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed concern over this coup plot and reiterated that right-wing extremism was the greatest danger to his country’s democracy — an assertion that he had made a year ago in December 2021 on assuming office.

Europe has pockets of monarchist/rightwing sympathisers who seek a return to an imperial past and an imagined Golden Age but by and large they have been perceived more as fringe groups with little societal power or following. However, Germany with its distinctive Teutonic strategic culture and its modern political roots in the Austro-Hungarian empire, has seen the steady growth of such right-wing groups whose sympathies lie with the imperial past. Their opaque ideology is a mix of deeply held anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and in certain demographic clusters, a veneration of Hitler.

In the immediate context, German authorities have indicated that the Reichsburger movement members were also influenced by the US born QAnon ideology. The latter group, which has white supremacist true-believers as its core led the January 6 assault on the US Capitol and are convinced that their country has been hijacked by a “deep state” leadership comprising left-wing Democrats (US version of “libtards”?) who are anti-Christ and worship Satan. And in a pattern that is familiar, the QAnon are also fiercely anti-LGBT and anti-immigrants.

A disturbing strand is the composition of the arrested suspects. Two members have been part of the German military and police and one woman was both lawmaker and a federal judge. The degree to which such right-wing ideology has penetrated the German security establishment has been a source of deep concern for Berlin and this was evidenced last year when a few members of the elite special forces unit, KSK (Kommando Spezialkräfte) were reportedly inducted into the Reichsburger movement.

While investigations by the German agencies will throw more light on the attempted putsch, two elements merit review and comment. The first is the quiet professionalism with which the German state has carried out its extensive surveillance and monitoring of the members of this group and finally arrived at a legally supported determination to foil the coup and arrest the suspects. The fact that some suspects were detained in Italy and others had links with Austria and Russia point to effective trans-national intelligence cooperation, which is commendable.

The second issue is the manner in which right-wing extremism with its anti-democratic orientation is slowly spreading in Europe and other parts of the world – including the US. That democracies can be differently illiberal and nurture right-wing ideologies has become empirically indisputable and the specificity of each nation is both distinctive and instructive. While Germany has made a very earnest attempt to do a mea culpa with its fascist past of the 20th century, the larger global trend is proving to be a challenge to such societal transmutation.

In recent decades, a toxic mix of the post 9/11 Islamophobia and anti-immigrant cum refugee sentiment, now exacerbated by both the Covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine has created an undesirable but fertile ecosystem for right-wing ideologies to be nurtured. Within Europe, right-wing political parties have found traction over the last decade. Germany apart, where the AfD (Alternative for Germany) is a legitimate actor in electoral politics, countries like Italy and Hungary have rightwing governments that have emerged victorious through the ballot box and France has its own grapple with the rightwing in its domestic politics.

High-profile political assassination attempts cannot be taken lightly and the trigger for World War I or the tragic fate that befell former Japanese PM Shinzo Abe are cases in point. Continuous vigilance and institutional integrity where fidelity to the constitutional principle remains inviolate are imperative to firewall democracy. The December 7 German experience is the bellwether.

The writer is director, Society for Policy Studies, New Delhi