(Observer Network News) Comprehensive foreign media reports, on the 15th local time, the German police said that they foiled a conspiracy by an anti-vaccine extremist organization to assassinate the governor and arrested 6 members of the organization.
It is reported that the governor, who was targeted for assassination, has been calling for strict lockdown measures to prevent his state from falling into a new wave of the epidemic. After the incident, the governor said the state government would mobilize more people to fight extremism. On the 15th, newly appointed German Chancellor Scholz also promised to take action against extremist groups, saying that his government would not tolerate violent protests against the epidemic restrictions.
Screenshot of the Reuters report
German police arrested a member of an anti-vaccine extremist group that attempted to assassinate the governor, pictured by foreign media
According to foreign media such as Reuters, Agence France-Presse, and Deutsche News Agency, on December 15, police in Dresden, the capital of Saxony, Germany, raided a number of locations in the city. Prosecutors said the police searched the places to investigate 5 men and 1 woman, aged between 32 and 64, and police had reason to believe they were preparing to commit the violence.
According to officials in Saxony, the men discussed an "assassination plan" against the state's governor, Michael Kretschmer, via instant messaging app Telegram. Local police also said in a statement that members of a chat group on the software oppose vaccinations and the state's current epidemic prevention policies, saying they plan to murder the Saxon governor and other state officials in both the group and in online meetings.
The police also said that they learned of this information through a report on the investigation program "Positive" on German television station 2. According to the report, 130 members of an organization called the Dresden offline network have all refused vaccinations and opposed the state and its current epidemic policies. Members of the group also posted language messages urging members to "use force when necessary" against Krechmer and others. Some members also hinted in online chats that they might be armed with guns, crossbows and other weapons.
In view of this, the state deployed a special operations team on the 15th and launched a surprise attack. According to police later, they found crossbows and other weapons during the raid. At present, the police are conducting a comprehensive investigation into five men aged 32, 34, 42, 45 and 64, and a 34-year-old woman.
According to some German media analysis, the attempt by members of the organization to assassinate Governor Kreichmer is largely related to the state's mandatory vaccination and other epidemic prevention restrictions. Reuters also said the incident highlighted some Germans' dissatisfaction with the government's restrictions on the unvaccinated, and they could not accept the government's plan to make the vaccination compulsory for ordinary people.
According to Reuters, Saxony has the second highest weekly infection rate among Germany's 16 federal states. The state is home to the far-right party Germany's Choice (AfD), which has many vaccine skeptics and anti-blockade protesters. As a result, Saxony has the lowest vaccination rate in the country, with only about 62% of the population being fully vaccinated.
The state's governor, Kreichmer, a member of Germany's opposition CDU, has been calling for a strict lockdown to prevent Saxony from plunging into a new wave of the epidemic, but has been opposed by protesters. In the city of Dresden alone, there have been several demonstrations against the government's epidemic policy and vaccine policy. In addition, in September, a vaccination centre in Saxony was targeted by arson. Earlier in December, a group of protesters also gathered outside the residence of the health minister of Saxony, carrying lit torches. This time, the governor was also targeted.
"Of course, you can say what you don't like. But when the violence happens, it's all over, and that's crossed the line that we can't tolerate," Kreichmer told the media after the incident. He also said the Saxony state government would mobilize more staff to fight extremism, that any threat to officials, journalists and scientists would be unacceptable and that the state would "make every effort" to track down any perpetrators.
On the 15th, German Chancellor Scholz also promised to take action against extremist groups. For the first time since replacing Merkel last week, Scholz made an important speech in parliament that day and focused on domestic issues. In the meantime, he mentioned that his government would not tolerate violent protests against the restrictions on the epidemic, "we will not tolerate a small group of unscrupulous extremists trying to impose their will on our entire society."
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