German Intelligence Puts Coronavirus Deniers Under Surveillance
The country’s domestic intelligence agency says it will create a new department to deal with extremism among conspiracy theorists.
Protesters rallied earlier this month in Berlin against measures that gave the central government more power to institute coronavirus measures.Credit.Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Published April 28, 2021Updated May 19, 2021
BERLIN Germany’s domestic intelligence service said on Wednesday that it would surveil members of the increasingly aggressive coronavirus denier movement because they posed a risk of undermining the state.
The movement fueled in part by wild conspiracy theories has grown from criticizing coronavirus lockdown measures and hygiene rules to targeting the state itself, its leaders, businesses, the press and globalism, to name a few. Over the past year, demonstrators have attacked police officers, defied civil authorities and in one widely publicized episode scaled t
German intelligence agency starts observing coronavirus conspiracy groups Lockdown to disrupt the spread of Covid-19 continues to be enforced around Europe. Photo: Brian Lawless/PA Wire. David Rising, Associated Press Reporter 28 April, 2021 10:42
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has put under observation some adherents of a disparate group that has attacked the country’s lockdown measures, and whose ranks have become increasingly radicalised as the pandemic has worn on, officials said.
The so-called Querdenker movement has held regular protests against lockdown measures, bringing together a broad range of demonstrators, including people opposing vaccinations, others who deny the existence of coronavirus, mask opponents, conspiracy theorists and others.
Movement protesting pandemic restrictions questions legitimacy of state institutions, country’s Interior Ministry says Oliver Towfigh Nia | 28.04.2021
BERLIN
Germany’s domestic secret service placed one of the country’s most radical and violent groups opposed to coronavirus restrictions under surveillance, the Interior Ministry announced in Berlin on Wednesday.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution considers parts of the protest movement against COVID-19 measures difficult to tackle because they question the legitimacy of state institutions, the ministry said.
Legitimate protests and demonstrations against the country s pandemic policy have repeatedly been exploited and escalations provoked, the ministry justified its decision.