BERLIN, Sept. 24 -- The German government has reversed a highly controversial decision to promote an ex-intelligence chief accused of stoking far-right conspiracy theories, the leaders of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Christian Social Union (CSU) and German Social Democrats (SPD) parties announced on Sunday night.
Hans-Georg Maassen, the former president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), will now become a special advisor to interior minister and CSU leader Horst Seehofer where he will receive the same salary as he did before being forced out of his intelligence agency last week.
Earlier, demands by the SPD for Maassen to be sacked after appearing to stoke far-right conspiracy theories resulted in an unusual cabinet compromise by which the ex-BfV president was transferred from his original post to a more senior and better-paid role as secretary of state in the interior ministry.
Rather than resolving the issue, however, the impression that chancellor Angela Merkel's governing cabinet had rewarded a civil servant for wrongdoing immediately provoked outrage among opposition parties and the grassroots membership of the SPD alike.
The incident brought Germany's "grand coalition" to the brink of collapse over the weekend and made yet another emergency cabinet session necessary in which the latest compromise on Maassen was reached.
A previously little-known intelligence chief, Maassen, has found himself at the center of a national controversy for questioning the authenticity of video footage showing right-wing extremists chasing foreigners in Chemnitz.
【国际英语资讯:German govt cancels controversial promotion of ex-intelligence chief Maassen】相关文章:
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