Left-wing extremists active since 2011
Volcano group has already carried out eleven attacks
March 23, 2024, 12:35 p.m
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An arson attack on a power pole paralyzed the Tesla factory in Brandenburg for days. The volcano group is presumably responsible. The Federal Ministry of the Interior admits that it is the eleventh attack by the left-wing extremist group since 2011.
The security authorities are currently aware of eleven criminal offenses that the left-wing extremist Vulkan group has claimed responsibility for since 2011. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of the Interior confirmed this upon request. There have been arson attacks on cable shafts, transmission masts and power supply lines. The attacks caused some significant damage, including power interruptions, radio network failures and disruptions to local public transport.
Previously unknown perpetrators recently set fire to a freely accessible electricity pylon in a field in eastern Brandenburg, which is part of the power supply for the Tesla car factory in Grünheide. Production therefore came to a standstill for several days. The far-left Vulcan group said it was responsible for the attack. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has commissioned the Federal Criminal Police Office to investigate. The BKA is investigating, among other things, initial suspicion of membership in a terrorist organization and unconstitutional sabotage.
“We have an increasing number of violent crimes”
BKA boss Holger Münch recently warned of an increasing threat from left-wing extremists. The threat situation is changing, he said last Sunday on ARD. “We have an increasing number of violent crimes. We have an increasing number of outstanding individual crimes and we also have perpetrators who evade prosecution and go into hiding,” he explained. “The whole thing taken together is an escalation of the threat from the left spectrum.”
Münch emphasized that the investigations were complex. Attacks on critical infrastructure, including arson attacks, are not uncommon from the left spectrum. “Approximately 56 percent of all politically motivated arson attacks are carried out by left-wing extremist groups.”
However, in the attack in Grünheide, a “slightly different modus operandi” was seen, as the BKA boss explained. “Arson attacks have never caused such great damage in the past. And of course that also has the potential effect of encouraging copycat acts,” said Münch. Therefore, everything will be done to identify the perpetrators as quickly as possible. “But it’s not easy because the group is very clandestine.”