German health minister says would-be kidnappers aimed to destabilise state
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German health minister Karl Lauterbach said a foiled plot to kidnap him showed that there were forces at play that were using protests against COVID-19 restrictions to destabilise the state and the country’s democratic system.
Prosecutors said earlier on Thursday they had detained four people suspected of plotting to kidnap the minister and destroy power facilities to cause a nationwide power outage.
“This is small minority in our society but they are highly dangerous,” Lauterbach told a news conference.
The suspects were affiliated with groups that protested against COVID-19 restrictions, and with the far-right “Reichsbuerger” movement, which denies the existence of the modern German state, the prosecutor’s office in the western city of Koblenz said in a statement.
“This shows that COVID protests have not just radicalised but that this is about more than just COVID,” Lauterbach said.
The plot to kidnap him is the latest in a series of incidents that have highlighted the anger of some Germans over restrictions on those not vaccinated and proposals to make vaccination compulsory for the general public.
In December, police foiled a plot by anti-vaccination activists to murder the state premier of Saxony in eastern Germany.
