FILE PHOTO: German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Hans-Georg Maassen, the President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s domestic security agency in Cologne, Germany October 31, 2014. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo
September 17, 2018
BERLIN (Reuters) – Chancellor Angela Merkel has decided that Germany’s domestic intelligence agency chief must go because she thinks he has meddled in day-to-day politics, newspaper Die Welt cited coalition sources as saying.
Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the BfV domestic intelligence agency, has come under fire after he cast doubt on the authenticity of video footage showing far-right protesters chasing migrants after the fatal stabbing of a German man.
Merkel’s junior coalition partners, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), want conservative Interior Minister Horst Seehofer to fire Maassen over his remarks, but he has so far refused to do so. The coalition partners are due to meet on Tuesday to discuss Maassen’s future.
(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Paul Carrel)
