The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has responded with a press release to the discussion on statements made by its President Hans-Georg Maaßen on the events in Chemnitz. The agency continues to check "all available information regarding its truth content in order to arrive at a reliable assessment of the events," it says. The examination, especially with regard to possible hunts by right-wing extremists against migrants, will continue.
Maaßen had doubted in an interview with the "Bild" newspaper media reports on such right-wing extremist hunts in Chemnitz. It said "good reasons that it is a targeted misinformation in order to possibly distract the public from the murder in Chemnitz".
AFP
Hans-Georg Maassen
Maaßen spoke as well as many demonstrators and populist politicians of murder, although the prosecutor's office for manslaughter determined.
The domestic intelligence service press release now states that "in light of the many attempts at instrumentalizing events," it is important to draw a clear line between legitimate democratic protest and a shift towards violence and political extremism. "
In Chemnitz there was a high level of emotionalization and rapid mobilization, which even right-wing extremists would have embraced. "The social media also played a major role here for the mobilization and the individual opinion forming", it said in the press release further. "But there are always fake news and attempts of disinformation."
The increase of violence-oriented right-wing extremists in Germany and their level of violence is "worrying". This was pointed out by Maaßen at the presentation of the report on the protection of the Constitution. In the meantime, the BfV rates every second right-wing extremist as violence-oriented: "Against this background, the constitutional protection authorities must also get a comprehensive picture of the events in Chemnitz."
In the video: Criticism of statement by Maaßen
Video
REUTERS