As of: January 31, 2024, 5:17 p.m
By: Lisa Mahnke
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Hans-Georg-Maaßen once headed the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
Now he himself is being watched.
The storage location?
Right-wing extremism area.
Berlin – Hans-Georg Maaßen was President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution for six years, from 2012 to 2018. He was then temporarily retired because of statements about “hunts” in Chemnitz.
Now, according to research by the
ARD
political magazine “Kontraste” and the news portal
t-online,
he himself was the object of observation.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has stored data on its former president Hans-Georg Maaßen in the authority's information system in the area of right-wing extremism.
When asked, the BfV declined to comment, citing personal rights.
Maaßen also left a press query from the investigative team unanswered.
He told the blog “Tichys Insight” that the allegations were substanceless and unjustified.
It is an “attack on the free democratic basic order”.
Hans-Georg Maaßen had been planning to found a party from the Values Union association for a long time.
© picture alliance/dpa |
Martin Schutt
Maaßen in the Union of Values: CSU is “a variant of the socialist parties”
The former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution resigned from the CDU a few days ago.
With the ultra-conservative values union, he set the course for the founding of his own party.
The association made a decision to found a party on January 20th and has already actively advocated cooperation with the AfD in the past.
Maaßen distributed his resignation letter to CDU party leader Friedrich Merz, dated January 25th, on the X platform (formerly Twitter) on Saturday.
In it he accused the CDU of “betraying classic values”.
The CDU is “a variant of the socialist parties and not an alternative to them”.
Observations from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution not suddenly: speculations about Maaßen as early as 2023
After Maaßen's involuntary retirement, the politician repeatedly attracted attention for conspiracy theory and right-wing radical statements.
As early as June 2021, the President of the Thuringian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Stephan Kramer, accused Maaßen of trying to get votes with “anti-Semitic stereotypes”.
He actively used conspiracy theories against “economic globalists” during the 2021 election campaign and compared migration to cancer when he
called for “chemotherapy for Germany” in an interview with the Swiss magazine
Weltwoche in 2023.
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Maaßen already suspected to the newspaper
Die Welt
in August 2023 that the BfV was watching him.
It became known at the time that the Federal Office had made a request for information about Maaßen in the state security department of the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA).
Intelligence requests are used to exchange information between offices.
Reactions from the Bundestag: Call for a parliamentary committee of inquiry
According to the Tagesschau,
the responsible members of the Bundestag should
already be informed.
Maaßen is also said to have already been informed about the storage by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
The former CDU politician had previously submitted requests for information about personal data to the domestic intelligence service.
Domestic politician Martina Renner (Die Linke) demanded: “Following the latest developments regarding the former President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Hans Georg Maaßen, a parliamentary investigative committee in the Bundestag must examine his activities during his time of service.” Maaßen was already during his time of service a cold anti-democrat who despises parliament and poses a threat to democracy.
(dpa/lismah)