BERLIN, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Hans-Georg Maassen, the controversial former president of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) in Germany, is considering launching a new career in politics instead of taking up a replacement post offered to him at the country's interior ministry, German media reported on Monday.
The reports cited the transcript of a speech which Maassen recently delivered before the "Bern Club" of international intelligence chiefs and was subsequently sent to BfV employees in an internal message.
"I can certainly also image a life outside of civil service, for example in politics or business," an excerpt of the document read.
The Maassen affair, which first began when the ex-BfV president publicly questioned the authenticity of video-footage depicting far-right violence in Chemnitz in September, has recently taken another twist as a consequence of the defiant speech.
Even before the full texts was published, media reported on Sunday that the interior ministry was preparing to retract an offer for Maassen to assume a new post there because he had doubled-down on earlier Chemintz-related comments and launched a searing attack on alleged "left-radical" elements in the German Social Democrat (SPD) party when addressing the "Bern Club".
"From my perspective, this was a welcome opportunity for left-radical forces in the SPD which were always against as coalition with the CDU/CSU to provoke a break-up of this coalition," Maassen said.
Earlier, the ruling "grand coalition" formed by the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Christian Social Union (CSU) and SPD reached an awkward and ultimately short-lived compromise to remove Maassen from the BfV by transferring him to a more senior and better-paid position as secretary of state in the interior ministry led by Horst Seehofer (CSU). Faced with an angry public backlash, the government was then forced to backtrack on the decision again and announced that it would instead make Maassen an advisor to Seehofer.
Responding to the latest revelations surrounding Maassen's incendiary speech, SPD secretary general Lars Klingbeil criticized the departing BfV president's "inappropriate" statements and urged Seehofer to reach a final decision on his future at the interior ministry.
According to the Funke media group, Maassen has himself already requested to be retired rather than taking up the replacement post created for him at the interior ministry. Today, a "disappointed" interior minister Seehofer personally informed the public that Maasen would be sent to early retirement because of "inacceptable statements".
