Merkel gov’t reaches deal on spy chief controversy

CHANCELLOR Angela Merkel and her two coalition allies on Sunday reached an agreement to resolve a festering row centred on Germany’s outgoing domestic spy chief.

They agreed that HansGeorg Maassen, 55, who leaves the post as chief of the BfV security agency, be appointed special representative for internal security, said the chancellery.

Crucially, the new job in the interior ministr y does not come with a raise in pay or status, after an earlier proposal to give Maassen the more senior post of state secretary had sparked a public outcry.

The dispute centres on cont r o v e r s i a l c om ment s b y Maassen t hat appea red to play down t he severit y of farr ig ht racist mob v iolence in the eastern cit y of Chemnitz last month.

Merkel’s j u n ior pa r t ners, t he centre-left Socia l Democ r at s ( SPD), t hen st rong ly pushed for Maassen to be f ired, while hardline Interior Minister Horst Seehofer of the conser vat ive Bava r ia n CSU had defended the spy master as a competent bureaucrat beyond reproach.

A shaky compromise deal reached last Tuesday – to shift Maassen to the more senior and better-paid state secretary post – had sparked even more anger and ridicule and heightened pressure on SPD party chief Andrea Nahles for accepting a bad deal.

T he d i spute rock i ng t he government of t he EU’s top economy has, many obser vers said, bordered on political farce and showed the weakness of Merkel as the leader of a loveless t hree-pa r t y a l l iance she had to cobble together for her fourt h term.

An Emnid poll for Bild am Son ntag newspaper fou nd t hat 67 per cent of respondents no longer bel ieved t he t hree part y chiefs still shared a common ba sis of t r ust, a lt hough a narrow majorit y a lso rejected t he opt ions of new elections now.

All major parties suffered in last September’s election as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party took millions of their votes, capitalising on public fears and anger over immigration.

Tensions flared last month after a fatal knife attack in Chemnitz triggered xenophobic mob violence that shocked Germany and the world.

Merkel deplored the unrest, but Maassen soon contradicted her and questioned whether any “hunting down” of foreigners had taken place, and whether amateur video footage of the confrontations had been fake.