The conservative candidate for German chancellor in September’s elections has been told by the country’s leading environmentalist that he is legitimising antisemitism by refusing to oust the former head of domestic intelligence from his party. The accusation was levelled at Armin Laschet, the leader of the CDU, by Luisa Neubauer, the face of the Fridays for Future movement in Germany, in a standoff on a popular weekly chatshow on Sunday night. Hans-Georg Maaßen was the head of the BfV, the domestic intelligence service, until 2018, when he was sent into early retirement after criticising Angela Merkel’s immigration politics and making comments seen to chime with far-right opinions.
