BERLIN, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- The German Social Democrats (SPD) have urged Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) on Thursday to ensure that Hans-Georg Maasen, president of the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), is sacked after making controversial comments about far-right marches in the city of Chemnitz.
"For the SPD leadership it is completely clear that Maasen must go. Merkel has to act now", SPD secretary general Lars Klingbeil told the press. Earlier, the BfV president had publicly questioned the authenticity of video footage depicting far-right protestors chasing foreign-looking civilians only to backtrack on the statements in a subsequent report to the interior minister and Christian Social Union (CSU) leader Horst Seehofer.
The demonstrations in question were inspired by the alleged murder of a German by two asylum seekers. The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party helped to organize and defended the marches in spite of protestors having partially resorted to violence, chanted Nazi slogans, and demonstrated general hostility towards foreign looking civilians in Chemnitz.
By telling the newspaper "WELT" that information obtained by his agency offered no evidence for chases of foreigners have taken place, Maasen directly contradicted Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Merkel as well as local security authorities on the issue. He was consequently ordered by Interior Minister Seehofer to present a clarifying report which "substantiates his thesis."
In the document sent to Seehofer at the start of the week, Maasen said that his comments were misunderstood and insisted that he had merely doubted whether the scenes could be accurately described with the term "man hunt". For Seehofer, who has come under fire himself for saying that he would have joined the widely-publicized Chemnitz marches if he were not a federal minister, the explanation offered by Maasen sufficed to restore trust in his ability to run the BfV.
"Maasen still has my confidence as president of the BfV", the interior minister told delegates during a speech in the federal parliament (Bundestag) on Thursday. He further emphasized that his department had zero tolerance for right-wing extremism and hatred against foreigners.
During the plenary debate on Thursday morning, the SPD already expressed its disappointment at the leniency shown by Seehofer towards Maasen in the affair. The unusually confrontational intervention now made by the SPD was widely seen in German media as potentially heralding a new political crisis in the "grand coalition" formed by the SPD, CDU and CSU in Berlin.
SPD vice-president Ralf Stegner wrote on Twitter that the "ball is now firmly in the court of the chancellor and CSU leader" and argued that Maasen was "no longer tenable in his position." Kevin Kuehnert, the leader of the SPD youth organization (JUSO) went as far as to raise the specter of a collapse of Merkel's fourth ruling cabinet unless she reversed Seehofer's decision to hold on to the BfV president.
Maasen has previously also been accused of offering the AfD clandestine advice on how to prevent being monitored by the BfV, a claim he vigorously denies. Growing calls by German policymakers, including several senior SPD politicians, for links between the party and right-wing extremists to be scrutinized by the country's intelligence service in light of events in Chemnitz have so far been met with skepticism from the interior ministry led by Seehofer.
