The call by Sven Hüber, deputy leader of the Police Union (GdP), who last week urged police officers in Saxony-Anhalt to refuse to obey a potential AfD government, was apparently not an uncoordinated initiative by a single individual, but enjoys the full backing of the union’s chairman, Jochen Kopelke. Behind this lies an international network of left-wing police unions that aim to prevent the rise of right-wing parties – and, should this fail, plan to sabotage their governments. This was revealed by research carried out by “Nius”. In April, the unions formalised their alliance, known as the “Democratic Policing Initiative”, by signing a memorandum in Berlin. “The initiative aims to create a broad, transatlantic platform to strengthen democratic policing, promote professional standards and improve cooperation in protecting vulnerable communities, Kopelke had explained at the time. Behind this vague statement, however, lies the clear intention to incite police officers against their own government if it consists of parties that do not suit the left-wing trade unionists.
The aim of the alliance is “that we do not participate in tyrannical rule”, US police official Paul Goldenberg had announced – and by “tyrannical rule” one means non-left-wing governments. “Police chiefs and senior police officers must understand: how could the Holocaust have happened? Where was the police? What would be the consequences if something like that were to happen again? And why is it so important that the police are not politicised?” Goldenberg continued.
Yet it is he and his fellow campaigners who are politicising the police by immediately seeing a new Holocaust looming whenever a right-wing conservative government comes to power, and using this to justify their refusal to obey orders. The GdP has even developed a ‘remonstration checklist’. ‘Remonstration’ refers to the right of civil servants to raise concerns with their superiors about official orders if they fear that the order may be unlawful or unconstitutional. The checklist contains text templates that police officers can use to justify their refusal to comply, such as: ‘I consider this order to be a criminal offence, and therefore I will not comply with it’.
These are, in fact, plans for a coup and a overthrow that have been drawn up here. For, of course, the GdP and its supporters will summarily declare any instruction from an AfD government to be unlawful, given that the party has been classified by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as allegedly ‘confirmed as far-right extremist’. The police unions also act as self-appointed monitors of social media, on the grounds that it “reinforces and accelerates hatred and intolerance”. Rutgers University, where Goldenberg is employed, has been scouring the internet for years with its own research unit called the ‘Network Contagion Research Institute’. This unit collects posts containing alleged ‘hate speech’ and forwards them to the police.
Given that similar efforts are being pursued in parallel within the German Armed Forces, and that a purge of unwelcome AfD officials and dissidents is underway – at least informally – it is reasonable to assume that, if push came to shove, there would be no hesitation in staging a full-scale coup against elected but unwelcome AfD state governments, accompanied by domestic military operations to quell any unrest that might then arise. This would effectively mark the start of a civil war. The issue of soldiers’ refusal to obey orders – which has already been openly discussed in the event of an AfD Defence Minister – has, after all, already been raised publicly; indeed, it was originally this very debate concerning an alleged right to refuse orders (based on the principle of internal leadership in the event of an alleged ‘extremist’ government) that subsequently led to similar considerations within the police force – and thus also to Hüber’s alarming statements.
It is unclear to what extent the GdP supports this line. The regional branches in North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Saxony-Anhalt and Berlin had vehemently distanced themselves from Hübers’s comments. Kopelke is likely to agree wholeheartedly with the substance of Hüber’s ramblings about resistance and even a ‘state of internal emergency’ in the event of an AfD state government, but he is nevertheless extremely annoyed by the nationwide public attention that his union – and thus his left-wing machinations – has attracted. For now it is all the more clear what sort of organisation the GdP is – namely a left-wing organisation that exploits police officers for its own political agenda, pursues its own political agenda and even hatches plans for a coup should it disagree with a government.