Merkel defuses far-right row by sacking intelligence chief

Angela Merkel’s government has removed domestic intelligence chief Hans-Georg Maassen from office, transferring him to another post to end a row over immigration and the far-right that shook the German chancellor’s fragile coalition.

“Mr Maassen will become State Secretary in the Interior Ministry,” Mrs Merkel and the leaders of her coalition parties said. The compromise lets Mrs Merkel’s fourth-term government live another day, after her Social Democratic coalition partners had insisted on Mr Maassen’s departure, against the wishes of Interior Minister Horst Seehofer from her Bavarian CSU sister party.

Mr Maassen, 55, became the centre of a controversy after he raised doubts about the veracity of reports of far-right hooligans and neo-Nazis randomly attacking immigrants in the eastern city of Chemnitz in August.

It was not immediately clear who will replace Mr Maassen as head of the Federal Office for Protection of the Constitution (BfV). But in his senior new role, essentially a promotion, Mr Maassen will not be responsible for overseeing the BfV, the party leaders assured.

The far-right attacks in Chemnitz were triggered by the fatal stabbing of a German man over which police are holding a Syrian suspect and searching for an Iraqi man. A court freed another Iraqi suspect on Tuesday.

Days after the unrest, Mr Maassen questioned the authenticity of amateur video footage showing street violence and voiced doubt that racists had “hunted down” foreigners – comments that contradicted Mrs Merkel, who had deplored the xenophobic attacks.

Social Democratic Party leaders – and the Greens, Free Democrats and Linke parties – had demanded the resignation or sacking of the spy chief for political meddling, and pointed to his repeated meetings with leaders of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party.