Some events are inane and idiotic, but conceal important phenomena and worrying potentialities. Such events could present an embellished and fragmented image of these phenomena; indeed, they could sometimes abort them. However, they push these latent phenomena above the surface, perhaps exposing the threat they pose as well.
The recent attempted coup in Germany can be categorized among those events. Does the term “coup in Germany” or any other Western European country, given the paradox within it, not give us the impression that we are hallucinating?
The details reported about the coup attempt in the media are typical of insane rightwing groups: changing Germany was entrusted to 25 far-right individuals, retired members of the armed forces and former Alternative for Germany members. They had been planning to storm parliament (the Reichstag) and seize power before they were arrested. They were clearly influenced by the storming of the Capitol in the United States after the recent presidential elections.
The model of these conspirators is the pre-1871 German empire. The Reichsbuerger (Citizens of the Reich) is one of the groups involved in the plot. Their most prominent member is a 71-year-old aristocrat who calls himself “Heinrich XIII.”
They hate nothing more than modern democratic Germany, which they refuse to recognize or pay taxes to, and some of them have printed alternative currencies and ID cards. QAnon, another group that took part, believes that real power lies with the “deep state,” which has dangerous secret powers.
They have no trust in institutions or science: COVID, in their eyes, is a conspiracy, and the false reports about it are part of a plan aimed at controlling residents and forcing them into submission. They hate the media because it misguides the people. Social media, which they use to spread their fantasies and generalizations, is their ultimate weapon.
The US and the Jews, as usual, top the list of evil conspirators. Der Spiegel added another spin to the story, suggesting Russia had had a hand in the attempt, though a Kremlin spokesman denied it.
Everything reported about these groups suggests that their actions revolve around two interlinked questions. First, they are drawn to a mostly imagined past, seeing it as salvation. Such a drive stems from deep anxiety about living in a transforming world in crisis. The challenges posed by globalization, refugees, migration, and the strains of the modern nation-state fall into this category.
As for the second matter, it is populist skepticism of democracy and its institutions, as well as an increasingly widespread conviction that the way in which countries are ruled and social relations are shaped no longer ensures economic security or any other form of security to residents.
What is worrying about all of this is not that the 25 individuals were planning a military coup before being arrested, nor is it that many extremist German citizens are armed or that number of armed citizens has been rising over the past few years. What should worry us is that a combination of democracy’s weakness and an intransigence in dealing with the changing times can precipitate ugly phenomena, of which military coups are only one example.
A quick overview of the history of some actions of this kind in democratic European countries affirms this notion.
In 1961, four retired French generals, spurred by their objection to the decolonization of Algeria, tried to overthrow President Charles de Gaulle. This intransigence in accepting change came at a time when the Algerian war was already undermining French democracy and the Fifth Republic.
Italy witnessed, in 1964 and 1970, two coup attempts that sought to obstruct any attempt at recognizing the legitimacy of the Communist Party and including it in government. Italian democracy was (and still is) suffering from weaknesses that analysts keep struggling to analyze and understand.
In 1978, Spain witnessed an attempt to obstruct its transition to democracy, which only began after the death of the country’s dictator Franco in 1975.
More recently, in 2017, rejection of globalization and modern statehood, as well as the influence of the model put forward by Vladimir Putin in Russia, precipitated an attempt in Austria that shares a lot of similarities with the recent attempt in Germany in terms of its ideas, practices and its pitiful number of participants. The woman who led this attempt, Monika Unger, wanted her movement to pave the way for a military coup.
As for Germany itself, it witnessed several coup attempts in the 1920s that were propelled by its economic collapse and a decline in confidence in political life and the Weimar Republic’s democracy. Among them was an attempt led by Adolf Hitler launched in Munich in 1923, the failure of which led to his imprisonment. However, just ten years later, Hitler managed to ascend to power through an election.
This does not mean that European countries, especially Germany, face the specter of seeing what happened a century ago repeat itself. Nonetheless, this attempt should inspire caution and anxiety.
We should remember that extreme right-wing parties rule Italy and that the electoral process itself, among the democratic principles that has been most resilient in face of populism, is now subject to skepticism. This was evident in the recent presidential elections in the United States and, to an extent, Brazil as well.
We should remember Donald Trump’s recent demand that the constitution be terminated. We should remember the Israeli elections and the government that will spring from them… We should notice that the extreme left and extreme right are constantly trying to deny the existence of democracy and announce its death.
All of this could turn and is turning into rifles shooting lethal, toxic bullets in every direction.
