Spy chief moved after contradicting Merkel

THE HEAD of German domestic intelligence was removed from his post yesterday after he publicly contradicted Angela Merkel in a move widely seen as interfering in politics.

Under a compromise deal to avoid a split in Mrs Merkel’s coalition, Hansgeorg Maassen was not dismissed but will be moved to the interior ministry as a senior civil servant, where he will be responsible for security.

Mr Maassen threatened to tip Germany into a new political crisis when he publicly disputed the chancellor’s account of last month’s neo-nazi protests in the city of Chemnitz.

Mrs Merkel’s main coalition partners, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) demanded that he be sacked as head of the BFV intelligence agency. But Mr Maassen won the backing of Horst Seehofer, the interior minister and the leader of Mrs Merkel’s other coalition ally, the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU).

The face-off had threatened to end the fragile peace that has held since Mrs Merkel bested Mr Seehofer in a power struggle over migrant policy at the start of the summer, and plunge her coalition into a new crisis.