I got it wrong over spymaster, Merkel admits, after row resolved

I got it wrong over spymaster, Merkel admits, after row resolved

by Joseph Anthony
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrives to give a statement at the CDU headquarters in Berlin

Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted on Monday she had misjudged her response to allegations of far-right sympathies against Germanyโ€™s spymaster, after resolving a row over his redeployment that threatened to pull her government apart.


BfV intelligence agency head Hans-Georg Maassenโ€™s political views came under the microscope this month after he questioned the authenticity of video footage showing radicals hounding migrants in the eastern city of Chemnitz.

Merkelโ€™s Christian Democrats (CDU), their Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) sister party and the third coalition partner โ€“ the centre-left Social Democracts (SPD) โ€“ agreed last week to transfer Maassen to a senior role in the Interior Ministry.

But that prompted a public blacklash when it emerged that Maassen would also get a pay rise. The coalition rescinded the hike on Sunday, after some members of the SPD called for their party to quit the alliance if it stayed in place.

โ€œI focused too much on functionality and processes in the interior ministry and not enough on what moves people, rightly, when they hear of someoneโ€™s promotion,โ€ Merkel told reporters, a year to the day after an inconclusive national election consigned the country to six months of political limbo.

โ€œI regret very much that that was allowed to happenโ€ฆ It is important that we now solve the problems of the people.โ€

LIMPING ON

The dispute had irritated Germans worried about more immediate issues such as rising real estate prices, prospects for pensions and a diesel emissions scandal, and frustrated authorities in Brussels used to Berlin playing a lead role in major euro zone issues.


It also added to doubts over whether the ruling parties, weakened after all losing ground in last autumnโ€™s election, can hold together for a full four-year term.

The clumsy compromise over Maassen, who has not commented in public about the allegations against him, unravelled on Friday when SPD leader Andrea Nahles said it was a mistake.

A poll last week showed that 72 per cent of voters had less confidence in the government as a result.

Support for all three parties has fallen since the election and there is little appetite among them for another ballot that polls suggest would strengthen the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

The coalition came close to collapsing in June over a dispute over immigration and border controls.

The CSU has toughened its line on the issue before a regional election in Bavaria next month in which it faces a tough challenge from the anti-immigration AfD.

EU Budget Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, a member of Merkelโ€™s CDU, complained in an interview on Sunday that a year in Europe had been wasted since Germanyโ€™s last federal election. He said other EU countries expected the government of its largest economy to finally start tackling European issues.

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