Germany’s domestic spy chief expressed scepticism on Friday that migrants had been hounded in Chemnitz after the fatal stabbing of a German man, undermining Chancellor Angela Merkel who has said images from the eastern city “very clearly” showed hate.
Germany has been deeply shaken by the most violent right-wing protests in decades after the Aug. 26 killing of the German man in Chemnitz, in the state of Saxony, for which two immigrants were arrested.
Friday’s comments by Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the BfV domestic intelligence agency, aggravated tensions about whether politicians and the authorities are being too complacent in the face of rising xenophobia in Germany, where many had thought the lessons of Nazi history had long been learned.
Michael Kretschmer, Saxony’s conservative state premier, said on Wednesday that migrants had not been hounded but Merkel rebuffed his remark a day later, saying pictures had shown “hate and … the persecution of innocent people”.
Maassen appeared to undermine Merkel by telling Bild newspaper’s Friday edition: “I share the scepticism about media reports on right-wing extremists hunting down people in Chemnitz.”
He added: “The domestic intelligence agency has no reliable information about such hunts taking place.”
Maassen’s comments prompted swift accusations from mainstream politicians that he was sowing confusion about events in Chemnitz, known as Karl-Marx-Stadt when it was part of former Communist East Germany, and demands that he go.
Maassen said there was no evidence that a video circulating on the internet was authentic, adding:
“Based on my cautious assessment, there are good reasons to believe that it amounts to intentional misinformation, possibly to divert the public’s attention from the murder in Chemnitz.”