Maassen released a letter from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) confirming he is the target of an investigation by the agency he headed until 2018
The former head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen, has confirmed that he is under investigation by the intelligence agency for suspected far-right extremism.
Maassen released a letter from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) confirming he is the target of an investigation by the agency he headed until 2018.
The agency says it cannot comment on individual cases due to strict privacy rules.
Maassen told X, formerly of Twitter, that the letter did not contain “substantial evidence that the investigation was justified,” adding that the government was afraid of him.
He accuses center-left Interior Secretary Nancy Feiser of using the intelligence services to fight political opponents.
In the letter, security officials cite Maassen’s apparent belief in far-right and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, his anti-immigrant rhetoric and a sympathy for the far-right Reichsbürger movement, members of which were arrested in December 2022 after a failed alleged coup.
Maassen has also stated that this new right-wing political party, the Union of Values, thewhich he founded at the end of January, will be happy to work with the far-right AfD to take power after the important upcoming regional elections.
As head of Germany’s intelligence service, Maassen was accused of downplaying the far-right threat.
Over the years, he has become increasingly vocal about the perceived dangers immigrants pose to German society, and his angry comments on social media have turned him into a symbol of the radical right.
In 2018, he was forced to resign – officially sent into “early retirement” – after appearing to doubt the veracity of a video showing xenophobic far-right violence at a street festival in the eastern city of Chemnitz.
Since then his comments have become more extreme. In an article titled “Chemotherapy for Germany,” he compared immigrants to cancer.
Experts say Maassen appears to have been “radicalised”, an irony for the former head of an agency tasked with countering radicalisation.
Source :Skai
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