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Kevin Kuehnert
Photo: IMAGO/Fotostand / Reuhl / IMAGO/Fotostand
SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert has criticized the Bavarian government for the large number of so-called "Reich citizens" in the Free State.
"The state government has to put up with the question of how Bavaria could become the number one Reich citizen biotope in Germany," he told the newspapers of the Bayern media group.
"Reich citizens" were only mentioned in the last half-yearly report of the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution in connection with the founding of schools and information events, but not as armed bearers who were sometimes prepared to use violence.
This is significant.
CSU General Secretary Martin Huber rejected Kühnert's criticism.
"Nowhere is action taken against Reich citizens as consistently as in Bavaria," said Huber.
A few days ago, the security authorities arrested 25 suspected “Reich citizens” in a raid.
22 of them are accused of being members of a terrorist organization that wanted to overthrow the political system.
At the end of September, around 5,200 people in Bavaria were assigned to the so-called "Reichsbürger" scene - this means that almost a quarter of all "Reichsbürger" known nationwide lives in the federal state.
According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, 23,000 people across Germany see themselves as »Reich citizens« – they do not recognize the Federal Republic and its democratic structures.
Recently it became known that the Bavarian police and the Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution also employ officials who are assigned to the so-called movement.
According to the Ministry of the Interior in Munich, a total of 13 civil servants and 3 employees are known to be employed by the Free State and who have connections to the "Reich Citizens" scene.
mfh/dpa