CEP Senior Advisor Alexander Ritzmann and CEP Senior Research Analyst Sofia Koller write: "[Translation] Radicalisation, extremism and terrorism are neither purely domestic nor solely foreign policy challenges for the security of the Federal Republic of Germany. Over the past 20 years, dealing with Islamist extremism and terrorism has repeatedly dominated the security policy agendas of domestic and foreign policy. At the same time, well-known phenomena such as right-wing extremism and newer forms of conspiracy ideologies such as QAnon, COVD-19 deniers or Reich citizens have increased in relevance. All these extremist phenomena have a strong transnational dimension."

"'All of this, for a quite a few years, was fairly harmless,' said Hans-Jakob Schindler, a former German diplomat and a director at the Counter Extremism Project. 'They got fines and they harassed local authorities, but they weren’t planning large-scale violence. ... With Covid, this exploded. The right-wing extremists immediately realised that any type of severe societal crisis is something they can take advantage of.'"

CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler interviewed: "The 25 people that were arrested is not the end of the story. There are additional people that are under investigation and the number keeps growing. They all belong, at the core of it, to a movement that is called the Reichsbürger, which holds old neo-Nazi beliefs really prevalent since 1945 in Germany that the Deutsche Reich did not end with the end of the Second World War and the foundation of the Federal Republic, but continues and therefore all political institutions, on the local, state, and federal level are therefore inherently illegal."

"Last week, German police arrested 25 members of a far-right group who were plotting a coup. What is the Reichsbürger movement? How dangerous are they? And what does this incident tell us about the nature of political extremism in Europe -- and closer to home? To answer these questions, Paul is joined by Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project."

CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler interviewed: "This was a fairly serious attempt of a group of individuals to organize nothing less than a coup d'etat in Germany."