The heads of Germany's ruling coalition faced uproar after firing intelligence chief Hans-Georg Maassen only to immediately promote him. The issue seems far from settled as Angela Merkel agreed to reconsider the move.
Image: picture-alliance/M. Kappeler
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer, and the head of the SPD party Andrea Nahles are set to renegotiate the fate of the sacked intelligence chief Hans-Georg Maassen, officials said on Friday.
"The chancellor believes it is right and appropriate to revalue the current issues and to find a joint, sustainable solution," Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Friday.
Maassen was forced out from his post as the head of Germany's BfV intelligence agency after publically disputing the authenticity of a video shot during the unrest in Chemnitz. The recording showed a far-right mob chasing people they thought were foreigners. However, Maassen said the BfV had "no reliable information" that such events took place and insinuated that reports about them could be "deliberate misinformation."
His remarks sparked an outcry from politicians and the public, prompting the government to fire Maassen as the head of BfV earlier this week. At the same time, however, the officials announced Maassen would be taking up a better-paid position as deputy interior minister.
The move was an apparent compromise between the left-leaning SPD and Maassen's ally, Horst Seehofer, who is Germany's interior minister. Seehofer is also the leader of the Bavarian CSU, which is part of the ruling coalition, alongside the SPD and Angela Merkel's CDU.
Seehofer signals agreement
The deal only prompted more criticism from the public. On Friday, SPD leader Andrea Nahles wrote a letter to Merkel and Seehofer urging them to reconvene and re-examine the move they all agreed to days before.
"The deeply negative response from the people shows that we were wrong," Nahles wrote. "We have lost trust, instead of gaining it."
In response, Interior Minister Seehofer said he was "considering" reopening the issue.
"I believe that a new consultation makes sense if a consensual solution is possible," he told the DPA news agency.
Rushing towards new deal
Addressing the public on Friday, Chancellor Angela Merkel said the three ruling parties want to present the solution on Maassen during the weekend.
The situation should be "re-evaluated" Merkel told reporters in Munich, adding that people in Germany "have a right to expect us to solve their concerns and problems."
Hans-Georg Maassen: A controversial career
Germany's ex-spy chief Hans-Georg Maassen is no stranger to controversy. He has been accused of a number of improprieties throughout his career and is suspected by many of having sympathies with far-right ideology.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Kappeler
Shadowy figure
Hans-Georg Maassen, the former head of Germany's Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) — the domestic intelligence service — has often drawn fire for his remarks and actions.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Hirschberger
Trouble in the Interior Ministry
Maassen gained notoriety in 2002 while working for the German Interior Ministry and arguing that Murat Kurnaz, a German resident held in the US prison at Guantanamo for five years before being released, could not return to Germany because his residency had lapsed. Herta Däubler-Gmelin, who was justice minister at the time, called Maassen's argument, "false, appalling and inhumane."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Schmidt
Vows to restore trust
In 2012, Maassen was tapped to lead Germany's top spy agency. He promised to restore faith in the BfV, which was embroiled in controversy over its entanglement in the right-wing extremist scene and his predecessor's decision to destroy files related to the neo-Nazi NSU murders.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S. Pilick
First calls for firing
Maassen has been accused of having "a troubled relationship with basic democratic principles" for his pursuit of bloggers on grounds of treason and trying to suppress negative stories on the BfV. In January 2017, he told parliament reports the BfV had undercover agents in the Islamist scene connected to the Berlin Christmas market attack were false. Records showing it did became public in 2018.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Hirschberger
Sympathies for the right?
Before Maassen made headlines by questioning the veracity of videos of right-wing protesters chasing foreigners through the streets of Chemnitz, he was under fire for advising right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) on how to avoid scrutiny from his agency. He has also been accused of sharing confidential documents with the AfD before presenting them to the public.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K. Nietfeld
One faithful friend ...
Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (r.) continued to support Maassen even after his controversial remarks over Chemnitz. Seehofer even took the ex-spy chief into the Interior Ministry in what was essentially a promotion. But that compromise has not been seen favorably by many in Germany, and failed to calm troubled waters within the ruling coalition over the affair.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/B.v. Jutrczenka
Forced out of office
Maassen was finally forced into retirement in 2018 after he spoke about "radical left-wing elements" in the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the junior partner in the ruling coalition, who had, he said, seized gladly upon his controversial remarks to provoke divisions in the government. He also criticized Germany's policies on refugees and security as "naive and leftist."
Image: Kay Nietfeld/dpa/picture-alliance
Campaigning for the Bundestag
The Christian Democrat Union in one district in the eastern German state of Thuringia chose the controversial former intelligence chief to run in this year's parliamentary election. Some 86% of party members in the small region voted in favor of Maassen becoming the party's directly-elected candidate on the ballot. The move means he has a shot at entering Germany's parliament in September.
