The new German government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz banned the largest "Reich citizen" group in the country. This is an extremist far-right organization that calls itself the "Kingdom of Germany" and seeks to undermine the country's democratic order. Hundreds of security forces in several states searched the association's properties and the homes of leading members, arresting four of them. "The members of this association have created a "counter-state" in our country and built up economic criminal structures," said the Interior Minister, adding that the group propagated antisemitic conspiracy narratives. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is the German analog to the US FBI: www.verfassungsschutz.de