Will ex-spy chief Maassen be ejected from the CDU?
August 17, 2019
Germany's ex-spy chief Hans-Georg Maassen faces possible exclusion from Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives over his alleged far-right stance. The call comes from CDU party chief Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/M. Sohn
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Kramp-Karrenbauer told Germany's Funke Media newspaper group Saturday that as Christian Democrat (CDU) chairperson she would not let her party be undermined as the Tea Party movement had done by "radicalizing" US Republicans.
Her remarks precede regional elections, due in September in Saxony and Brandenburg, and Thuringia in October — three eastern German states where the opposition far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is polling strong alongside gains by the Greens in urban hubs — trends that have prompted rethinks about future power-sharing options across Germany's political spectrum.
Maassen, who belongs to the "Values Union" [Werteunion) — an arch-conservative group with restrictive immigration views that was formed in 2017 within Merkel's CDU and sister Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) alliance — was sent into retirement last November as head of Germany's BfV domestic intelligence service.
That was after he downplayed video footage showing far-right protesters chasing migrants in Chemnitz in eastern Saxony and referred to "radical left forces" among the Social Democrats (SPD), currently in a federal coalition with Merkel.
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.
Image: Jens SchlueterAFP/Getty Images
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Kramp-Karrenbauer, known widely as AKK, who took over from Merkel as CDU chief last December and last month became Defense Minister, told Funke Media: "There's good reason why there's a high hurdle in getting someone excluded from a party. But in Mr Maassen I see no stance which really links him to the CDU."
She also accused Maassen of conducting his politics under the "protective cloak" of the CDU to primarily target perceived opponents within the party's own ranks — a stance she rejected as "unjustified" for a party that sustained a mix of civil-conservative views.
In reaction, Maassen told Germany's DPA news agency Saturday: "It is a mystery to me who advised her to conjure up such thoughts."
Maassen asserted that, under Merkel as former CDU chairperson [from 2000 until 2018], the party had "moved far to the left."
'Glad' Maassen no long spy chief
Venting her criticism of Maassen further, Kramp-Karrenbauer, formerly state premier of Saarland — a German region neighboring France — said as a previous Saarland interior minister she was glad that "Mr. Maassen no longer has responsibility for the German Verfassungsschutz [Office for the Protection of the Constitution]."
Since her rise to become CDU leader, Kramp-Karrenbauer's chances of one day succeeding Merkel as chancellor have been queried by Werteunion detractors, who want a party ballot on the next chancellery candidate — ultimately parliament's decision.
Compared to the CDU-CSU alliance of some 550,000 members, the Werteunion has only 2,000 led by regional Heidelberg CDU politician Alexander Mitsch, who recently defied the federal CDU by refusing to rule out future links with the far-right AfD.
Last December, the federal CDU at its party conference rejected outright "coalitions and similar forms of cooperation" with the AfD as well as Germany's opposition ex-communist Left party.
Under its new chief Thomas Haldenwang, the federal BfV domestic intelligence agency based in Cologne recently stepped up checks of neo-Nazi groups, including those suspected of having links extending into the AfD, which has 91 seats in the federal Bundestag.
Scrutiny mounted in June after the murder of Walter Lübcke, a regional government official and longtime CDU member, allegedly by a right-wing extremist.
