Another fake German king arrested, Germany backpedals on AfD 'extreme right' classification and police raids over Russian bomb plot

 Welcome to the new Alpine Security Monitor. This project is only in its pilot stage at present. However, you can sign up and subscribe for weekly updates on security and geopolitics as it concerns the Alpine region, namely Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and Switzerland (ok, little Liechtenstein too when merited).

Currently, three tiers of subscriptions are offered: the free version (sign up below), member and warrior, available already for those who might stumble onto this site as we test what works and what does not.

KARLSRUHE, GERMANY – Not again: Self-declared Reichsbürger ‘king,’ ‘subjects’ arrested

• BBC reports German authorities announced the arrest of Peter Fitzek, another self-declared “king” of Germany, along with three of his senior “subjects,” all members of the Reichsbürger movement. Fitzek is a former chef and karate instructor; in a previous court case he self-identified as “Peter the First”.
• Post-heroic society: Many of the 25,000 members of the Reichsbürger movement share ultra-nationalist and antisemitic views, but what really gets them excited is expanding Germany’s borders back to those of the 1871 German Empire.
• In 2022, German authorities arrested another aristocratic member of the Reichsbürger movement, Frankfurt real estate developer Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss, for heading up a coup plot that would have installed him as head of state. At the time of his arrrest, he was with a Russian woman identified in court papers as “Vitalia B.” who also had a role in the alleged plot.

COLOGNE, GERMANY – The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) backpedals on AfD “extreme-right” classification

• Though no reason was given, the agency backpedaled on the classification which would have given it extra powers of surveillance, less than a week after the announcement was made and just days after the far-right Alternative für Deutschland sued in federal court in Köln, Politico reports.

GERMANY & SWITZERLAND – Police raids net three suspects in Russian bomb plot

• Police raided locations in Konstanz and Cologne, Germany as well as in the canton of Thurgau in Switzerland in pursuit of suspects involved in Russian sabotage efforts of commercial package carriers involving package bombs, German weekly Der Spiegel via Swiss tabloid Blick and Swiss international public broadcaster Swiss Info report.
• The three Ukrainian nationals were arrested after they reportedly agreed to commit acts of arson and detonate explosives on behalf of the Russian state.
• The three sent packages with GPS tracking device to addresses in Ukraine to sniff out logistics networks and transport routes.

BERLIN, GERMANY – New foreign minister backs 5% defense spending target

• Politico reports Johann Wadephul, Germany’s new foreign minister, backs a defense spending target of 5% of GDP, dividing the new ruling coalition. Currently, Germany spends 2% of its GDP.

BERLIN/KYIV: Germany to stop reporting arms deliveries to Ukraine

• The move to reduce public reporting about arms transfers will help with “strategic ambiguity,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said, according to Reuters.
• In Kyiv, Merz told RTL/ntv broadcasters, “Under my leadership, the debate about arms deliveries, caliber, weapons systems and so on will be taken out of the public eye.”

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – US and China dial down tariffs for 90 days

• Following talks in Geneva over the weekend, the US and China agreed to dial back tariffs for 90 days.
• Instead of a 145% tariff from the US on Chinese goods, China now faces a 30% tariff and the US faces a 10% tariff instead of the 125% reciprocal tariff previously imposed, CNN reports.

ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND – Swiss bank Julius Bär fined CHF 4.3m over ‘serious violation’

• Switzerland’s financial regulator, Finma, ordered the bank to pay up after anti-money laundering compliance failures between 2009 and 2019 left the bank exposed with high risk clients.
• While the enforcement decision is dated November 2024, the news had not been previously disclosed or reported, the FT reports.
• According to the paper, Finma’s investigation centered on “a client cluster involving a Russian banker suspected by Moscow authorities of embezzlement.” A second cluster was the result of a whistleblower and focused on “several Indian nationals who were served primarily by the bank’s ‘non-resident Indian’ team in Dubai, as well as from Zurich and Singapore.”

SWITZERLAND – Hamas ban now in effect

• Israel’s i24 reports Switzerland’s ban on Hamas went into effect Thursday after a 2024 vote of the security policy committees of the National Council and Senate.
• The new law prevents financing the terror group’s activities, facilitates preventative police measures such as banning entry and expulsion or deportation from Switzerland as well as simplifies evidence procedures in criminal proceedings.
• Hezbollah does not face a similar ban in the country.

BASEL, SWITZERLAND – Eurovision arrives with throat-slitting gesture aimed at the Israeli participant

• Eurovision is this weekend in Basel and with it, the usual melee of protests that have become customary in Europe since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the devastating war in Gaza that has followed.
• Last Sunday, the contest opened with a parade through the streets of Basel where the Israeli contestant, Yuval Raphael, a survivor of the attack on the Nova music festival, was met with a throat slitting gesture by a man wearing a kaffiyeh and carrying a Palestinian flag. France24 reports Israel’s public broadcaster Kan filed a complaint with the Swiss police.
• Last year’s winner, Nemo, who identifies as non-binary, has joined the chorus of voices calling for the cancellation of Israel’s participation in the contest.

PARIS, FRANCE – Hundreds take part in sanctioned neo-fascist march

• Le Monde reports that a march involving hundreds of far-right activists under riot police protection took place in the central Parisien Montparnasse district last Saturday.
• The march was initially banned by the police before being authorized by the administrative court. Organizers said the march was to commemorate the 1994 death of Sébastien Deyzieu, an ultra-nationalist student after he fell from a building evading police at an anti-American march of “Oeuvre Française,” an antisemitic movement founded in 1968 by the son of a Nazi collaborator; 13 arrests were made according to RFI.
• The scene was not so dissimilarly dystopian as we have seen elsewhere in the world: “’She loves Jewish dick,’ shouted a demonstrator at a woman who yelled ‘fascists’ in their direction. ‘But how can such things be allowed? I can't believe this!’ said a man in his sixties, tears in his eyes, as the column of demonstrators proceeded down Rue de Rennes, chanting ‘Europe, youth, revolution,’ waving Celtic cross flags”.

NANCY, FRANCE – Russia if you’re listening: France and Poland sign strategic security treaty

• France and Poland took the occasion of May 9 to sign a mutual defense treaty, committing to mutual assistance in the event of an attack by an aggressor, Le Monde reports.
• Currently, Poland has 216,000 troops, already more than France’s 205,000, but is aiming for 300,000 by 2035.
• Signed in Nancy in the eastern Lorraine region, the deposed Polish king Stanislaus I, the father-in-law of French King Louis XV, ruled there in the 18th century.

PARIS, FRANCE – Élysée tackles Kremlin disinfo about “cocaine train” head on

• Footage of a kleenex on a table on the train to Kyiv got branded “a bag of cocaine” in a video shared by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova before spreading widely online through known disinfo channels and others keen to share it, Reuters reports.
• On social media, Macron and the official Élysée channels responded, “When European unity disturbs, disinformation goes as far as passing a simple tissue for drugs.” The bogus allegation was being “spread by the enemies of France”.

PARIS, FRANCE – French cinema icon, friend of the Kremlin Gerard Depardieu guilty of sexual assault

• Depardieu was found guilty of assaulting two women on the set of “Les Volets Verts” in 2021, France24 reports. Approximately 20 women have accused him of abuses, though this is the first to come to trial.
• He was handed an 18-month suspended sentence and will be listed in the sex offenders registry along with an €29,040 fine. He was not present for the verdict. 
• In 2013, Depardieu received a Russian passport as a result of a Putin-issued decree.

VATICAN CITY – New Pope Leo XIV breaks with Francis and supports Kyiv, calls for ceasefire

• In the days after being named Pope, Leo XIV spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss Ukrainian children abducted by Russia and back calls for a 30-day ceasefire, the FT reports.
• At mass in St. Peter’s Square last Sunday, Leo XIV said, “I carry in my heart the sufferings of the beloved Ukrainian people,” adding calls for “an authentic, just and lasting peace as soon as possible.”
• Previously, Pope Francis had avoided directly accusing Moscow of aggression and once called on Ukraine to “have the courage to wave the white flag” and “forgive”.

And finally this week… PARIS, FRANCE – French Interior Minister to meet crypto leaders after kidnappings

• Following a spate of kidnappings of crypto industry leaders and their families and viral footage of an attempted kidnapping on the streets of Paris, the French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau is to meet with crypto industry leaders, France24 reports.