[ad_1]
BERLIN (Reuters) – The outgoing head of German intelligence was sacked on Monday in a closed-door speech condemning the "naive and leftist" government's policies and hinting that he was planning to go into politics.
PHOTO: Hans-Georg Maassen, President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, attends a Reuters interview in Berlin, Germany, on January 30, 2018. Photo taken on January 30, 2018. REUTERS / Axel Schmidt / File Photo
Hans-Georg Maassen's remarks, reported for the first time by the Munich-based Sueddeutsche Zeitung, have threatened to reopen a high-level debate on Maasen's so-called far-right sympathies, that the split government coalition in power had just corrected.
"I asked the president to place the head of the national security service in early retirement," Interior Minister Horst Seehofer told reporters, adding that Maassen's speech had "made it impossible to trust".
Seehofer had saved Maassen from dismissal in September when the internal spy master had questioned the authenticity of videos showing far right nationalists chasing immigrants in the city of Chemnitz, in the East of the country.
Maassen compared the videos to Russian propaganda and presented himself as a victim of a witch hunt led by the "radical left forces" of the Social Democrat Party (SPD). partner of the coalition of Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"I am perceived in Germany as a critic of idealistic, naive and leftist foreign policy and security. I can imagine a life outside the public service, for example in politics or business, "said Maasen in his speech.
Even before his last remarks appeared, many members of the SPD and other opposition parties had been suspicious of the official, suspecting him of harboring far-right tendencies.
The far right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) said that he would be happy to work with Maassen. "I have a lot of respect for Mr. Maassen," AfD President Joerg Meuthen told RND newspapers on Monday. "If he wanted to join us, he would be welcome."
The security agency Maasen, responsible for surveillance, monitors extremist threats against the German constitutional order.
The Social Democrats have welcomed his dismissal. "It was long overdue," SPD Secretary General Lars Klingbeil said in a statement. "He just gave another indication of his penchant for the right conspiracy theories."
In Germany, many right-wing people are particularly dismissive of what they see as Merkel's liberal immigration policy, which was supported by the SPD. Germany has admitted about one million asylum seekers, mainly Muslims, since the 2015 migration crisis.
While Maasen's speech was delivered privately, his text was later uploaded to the security intranet site, where thousands of people fled to the general public, almost certain.
Seehofer said that he had already backed Maassen because he had wanted to defend a subordinate who had quickly apologized for ill-grounded remarks on Chemnitz's video in an interview with the well-known tabloid Bild.
But his quick action to dismiss Maasen also showed how weakened Seehofer was by the disastrous performance of his Christian-Social Union party in the Bavarian regional elections last month, with many calling him to resign.
The recriminations about Maasen follow the deadly defeats of Christian Democrats Merkel, CSU and the SPD in the important elections held last month. The bad results pushed Merkel to resign from her position as head of the center-right CDU and many are calling for the end of her "grand coalition" without love.
Report by Thomas Escritt; Edited by Mark Heinrich
