President of the Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution Hans-Georg Maassen
The head of Germany's domestic spy agency, facing calls to quit for questioning whether a video showing far-right gangs hounding migrants in the city of Chemnitz was genuine, now accepts the footage was real, two papers reported on Tuesday.
Germany's most violent far-right protests in decades, which took place in the eastern city over the fatal stabbing of a German man blamed on two migrants, have reignited a heated debate about Chancellor Angela Merkel's 2015 decision to open the country's borders to more than a million refugees.
Hans-Georg Maassen, who heads the BfV intelligence agency, prompted anger from lawmakers of mainstream parties last week for telling top-selling Bild he was not sure if the footage, shot in Chemnitz two weeks ago and circulated online, was genuine.
The head of Germany's domestic spy agency must explain why he cast doubt on the authenticity of videos showing far-right gangs hounding migrants in an eastern city, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Monday.BfV head Hans-Georg Maassen has faced calls to resign from across the mainstream political spectrum after he said he was not sure if footage circulated online showing skinheads chasing foreigners in Chemnitz were authentic.Violent protests in the city last month by far-right groups over the fatal stabbing of a German man blamed on two migrants have widened already deep social divisions that were exposed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision in 2015 to open Germany's borders to more than one million migrants.Seehofer heads the Bavaria-based Christian Social Union (CSU) party, which is generally further right on social issues than its alliance partner, Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU).German finance minister expects digital tax reform to take timeHe has been criticised for saying he would have joined in the Chemnitz protests, albeit not with far-right groups.But on Monday he took a more conciliatory line."We are waiting to see what he has to report to us," he told reporters when asked if Maassen could remain as BfV chief. "Everything else will be dealt with then."Seehofer also urged caution over the arrest of two Afghans following the death at the weekend of a German man in the eastern city of Koethen, where far-right and left-wing protesters held rival demonstrations.Germany, Qatar vow to boost economic ties"We need to do everything to overcome what is happening in our country: terrible anti-Semitic incidents, far-right radicalism but also crimes by migrants. We need to face all those challenges," Seehofer said.Anne-Marie Keding, justice minister of Saxony-Anhalt where Koethen lies, said an initial autopsy showed the 22-year-old man had died of a heart condition.Its interior minister Holger Stahlknecht urged participants at a wreath-laying ceremony for the man on Monday evening to behave "reasonably".The BfV has presented its report on events in Chemnitz to Seehofer and Merkel.Merkel vows support for Turkey’s economyMerkel rebuked the premier of Saxony, the state where Chemnitz is situated, after he said no mobs hunted down migrants in the city, where a Jewish restaurant was also attacked.Seehofer noted the Saxony premier's comments, and said police and the spy agency chief had reached the same conclusion."The second thing is the veracity of the videos. Mr Maassen has said he doubts the videos are real. He must have reasons to reach this conclusion," the minister said.
Germany's spymaster must explain doubts over Chemnitz videos: interior minister
The Sueddeutsche Zeitung and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said Maassen had written to Interior Minister Horst Seehofer saying that the video had not been falsified and that his comments had been misunderstood.
Maassen said he had meant to express doubt about whether the video genuinely showed people being chased, the papers wrote.
Lawmakers including the leader of the Social Democrats (SPD), who share power with Merkel's conservatives, called on Maassen to resign if he failed to explain his comments, and it is not yet clear to what extent the new explanation will ease the pressure on him.
A 22-year-old German man died overnight in the eastern town of Koethen and two Afghans have been detained on suspicion of killing him, the police and the public prosecutor's office said on Sunday."In this context, two Afghans were provisionally detained on suspicion of homicide," the police and the public prosecutor's office said in a statement. Germany has been shaken by the most violent right-wing protests in decades after the Aug. 26 killing of another German man in the city of Chemnitz, for which two asylum seekers were arrested.
Two Afghans detained on suspicion of killing man in east Germany
Maassen had appeared to contradict Merkel's view of the events in Chemnitz. She last week rebuked a conservative ally, head of the state of Saxony where Chemnitz is located, for playing down the violence. Police also arrested people in the city for giving the Nazi salute, an action that is illegal in Germany.
Merkel and her spokesman have repeated several times that far-right violence is unacceptable in Germany.
On Monday evening several hundred right-wing supporters dressed in black gathered in the eastern city of Halle, in Saxony-Anhalt, following the death at the weekend of a German man and the arrest of two Afghans in the nearby city of Koethen.
Police said they made 14 arrests, mainly for showing banned right-wing symbols, but there had been no serious violence.
Leading German Social Democrats and some conservatives called on Monday for surveillance of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) after some of its leaders marched with the anti-Islam PEGIDA group.Some 6,000 supporters of the two groups demonstrated in the eastern city of Chemnitz on Saturday against the fatal stabbing of a man, allegedly by two migrants.The case and subsequent xenophobic attacks have revived a debate over Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal immigration policy and the need to crack down on far-right groups. SPD leader Andrea Nahles told reporters in Bavaria that she backed observation of the AfD: "After Chemnitz, there are good reasons to do that. The AfD allowed itself to become a front organisation for radical rightists in the streets of Chemnitz, either willingly or unwillingly."Germany suspends two policemen over Nazi saluteBavarian premier Markus Soeder told the broadcaster ntv there might not be enough evidence to warrant observation of the AfD as a whole, but individuals could potentially be monitored.He said he was troubled by the AfD's actions in Chemnitz, and rejected calls by some party members to relax gun control laws in Bavaria. "It's not just about an opposition party; they have a hidden agenda," he said. "We have to send a clear signal in Bavaria that we don't want what happened in Chemnitz."AfD leader Alexander Gauland has said public anger after the stabbing in Chemnitz was justified, but that his party does not support extremism.AFD SUPPORT RISINGThe AfD, which won nearly 13 percent in last year's federal election, rose two percentage points to 16 percent in an RTL opinion poll after the events in Chemnitz.Martin Doering, spokesman for the intelligence service of Saxony, where Chemnitz lies, said a decision on surveillance would be premature, and that it could take weeks to complete investigations into possible right- and left-wing extremism surrounding the Chemnitz case.Interior Minister Horst Seehofer and his Bavarian CSU say the conditions have not been met to monitor the AfD as a whole.Volker Kauder, a top Merkel aide, said on Sunday that comments by some AfD politicians inciting violence against media groups showed the party wanted to "attack our state".But Stefan Mayer, state secretary in the Interior Ministry and a member of the CSU, said a crackdown on the AfD could backfire. "That may well give it a sort of martyr image," he told German radio.Fifty-seven percent of Germans polled by the Civey Institut for Funke Mediengruppe agree that the AfD should be monitored by the government.A court in the town of Landau on Monday sentenced an Afghan youth to 8-1/2 years in jail for the fatal stabbing of his 15-year-old girlfriend in the small western town of Kandel last December. 
Pressure mounts for surveillance of Germany's far-right AfD party
Police in Germany's southern state of Bavaria are investigating two officers suspected of performing the illegal Hitler salute.The German constitution makes it a crime to exhibit Nazi symbols and the incident is likely to feed into a heated debate about racism and the rise of the far right after a record influx of mainly Muslim migrants three years ago.Police said in a statement on Saturday the two policemen had shouted anti-immigrant remarks and made the salute in a pub in the city of Rosenheim on Thursday. It based its information on a witness who was in the vicinity of the two officers.Rival protests held over killing of German citizenA third man, described as a security guard in the police statement, had also taken part and made the salute. The policemen have been suspended.German politicians have been urging action to combat a rise in hostility toward foreigners after skinheads last Sunday clashed with police in an eastern city where a man was fatally stabbed and two migrants were identified as the main suspects.Skinheads raised their arms in Nazi salutes, chased people who appeared to be outsiders and wrestled with police in Chemnitz after police identified the suspects as a Syrian and an Iraqi.Far-right protests continue in eastern GermanyThe leaking of the arrest warrant for one of the two stabbing suspects to the anti-Islam group PEGIDA raised concerns that some justice officials in the state of Saxony, where Chemnitz is located, were sympathetic to the far right."We will not allow the extreme right to infiltrate our society," Justice Minister Katarina Barley told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday, urging authorities in Saxony to investigate far-right groups.Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal immigration policy remains deeply divisive in a country that has taken in more than 1.6 million people over the last four years.The influx contributed to the rise of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which entered parliament for the first time in an election last year with a campaign that proclaimed Islam to be incompatible with the German constitution.Some 8,000 people took part in a demonstration organised by the AfD and the anti-Islam group PEGIDA in Chemnitz on Saturday. About 3,000 people attended a rival protest by leftist groups.Police said on Sunday that the demonstrations were largely peaceful.Leftist groups will hold a concert in the city on Monday to denounce xenophobia and hatred against refugees and foreigners. 
Germany suspends two policemen over Nazi salute