extremism
Juso boss calls for an investigative committee on Maaßen
Philipp Türmer, chairman of the Jusos, is calling for a Bundestag committee of inquiry into the work of the former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen, in the civil service. photo
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
Investigative committees in the Bundestag are usually set up by the opposition. The Juso boss is now calling for one from the traffic light coalition. It’s about the topic of right-wing extremism.
Juso boss Philipp Türmer calls for a BundestagCommittee of inquiry into the work of the former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen, in the civil service. The background is media reports that the domestic secret service has now stored data about Maaßen in its information system under right-wing extremism. However, there is no confirmation from the authorities yet.
“The Office for the Protection of the Constitution has recognized the danger posed by Hans-Georg Maaßen and has finally classified him as a right-wing extremist,” said Türmer about the reports. “It has been around five years since his time as President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. His permanent racist, anti-Semitic and nationalist positions do not suggest that this ideology has only matured in the last five years.”
Full transparency must now be created as to how Maaßen used his resources as President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, demanded the chairman of the SPD youth organization, which makes up almost a quarter of the SPD members of the Bundestag. “We need clarification about Hans-Georg Maaßen’s term of office throughout the civil service. The traffic light coalition should set up a parliamentary committee of inquiry to examine this former Union figure and the threat she poses to our democracy.”
Maaßen entered the civil service in the early 1990s, worked for a long time in the Federal Ministry of the Interior and was appointed President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in 2012 by the Union and FDP government under Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), which he remained until the end of 2018. Today he is chairman of the right-wing association Values Union and wants to found a party out of it.
Juso boss Türmer emphasized that at a time when right-wing forces are gaining more and more self-confidence and are openly talking about deportation fantasies, the state and civil society must defend democracy with all available means. “A Nazi at the head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is reminiscent of the young Federal Republic, where old Nazis were given relevant positions,” he said. “Back then, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution colluded with right-wing radicals, spied on former Nazi resistance fighters and disregarded the requirement of separation. Until now, it was hoped that these times were behind us.”