President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution Haldenwang: “Maassen harms the Federal Office”

Germany’s top constitutional protection officer Haldenwang accuses his predecessor of damaging his authority with “very radical statements”. He sees “clearly anti-Semitic content” in Maassen’s statements.

The President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, has accused his predecessor Hans-Georg Maassen of damaging the authority with radical right-wing statements. “Because we are always associated with such things,” said Haldenwang im “Interview of the Week” of Deutschlandfunks.

Haldenwang, who has headed the office since 2018, said he sees Maassen “emerging through very radical statements, statements that I can really only perceive in a similar way only from the far right of political aspirations.”

“Clearly anti-Semitic content”

He agrees with statements made by the federal government’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein, “who clearly sees anti-Semitic content here (…)”. The Central Council of Jews in Germany shares this assessment, according to Haldenwang.

The former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Maassen, had written, among other things, about “driving forces in the political and media space” whose thrust was “eliminatory racism against whites”. He also spoke of “racism” that was “acted against the native Germans” and of “a green-red racial theory”.

Sharper focus on right-wing extremism

Haldenwang said with a view to Maassen and his work as the top secret service officer: “He only made such statements after he left office.” Maassen did not work in the office in such a way or shaped the office.

Haldenwang said it was necessary to focus more sharply on right-wing extremism under his presidency. “But that was also a question of resources.” Parliament has provided the authority with numerous additional posts and funds.