How Berlin's AfD wanted to provoke the Greens with Maaßen: "I am grateful to have found asylum here"

It was supposed to be a minor scandal, perhaps even a real one. The Berlin AfD parliamentary group had invited Hans-Georg Maaßen , the former head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, to a meeting of the Interior Committee of the House of Representatives. The CDU, SPD, Greens, and Left parties rejected his appearance. The AfD tried to capitalize on this.

Maaßen's rejection was primarily based on one of the topics of the committee meeting: a motion by the Greens entitled "Protecting Democracy: Berlin Needs a Comprehensive Strategy Against Right-Wing Extremism."

Maaßen's rejection: How the Berlin AfD wanted to capitalize on it

Among other things, it states: More "digital street work" offerings with a specialized focus on right-wing extremism are needed. Projects and offerings, such as prevention programs of the State Commission Against Violence and the State Program Against Right-Wing Extremism, Racism, and Anti-Semitism, "must be financially secured, especially to counteract the increasing radicalization online."

In addition, public prosecutors’ offices must be “strengthened, particularly in the prosecution of politically motivated crime, including through regular training on current developments in the phenomenon.”

Maaßen: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution lists its former boss as right-wing extremist

The other parliamentary groups justified Maaßen's denial as an expert on the topic, arguing, among other things, that Maaßen was not an expert on right-wing extremism. What's more, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution now lists its own former head as a right-wing extremist.

When this became known in January 2024, Maaßen spoke of "unfounded and unjustified accusations" and viewed them as "an attack on the free democratic basic order" by the then Federal Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser of the SPD. And it is precisely for this reason, one might understand, that the Berlin AfD proposed Maaßen, who had since risen to the position of chairman of the Values ​​Union party, as an expert.

While the Interior Committee was convening in a chamber of the House of Representatives on Monday morning, the AfD hosted a press conference next door – guest of honor: Hans-Georg Maaßen. He was grateful that "I found asylum here," the 62-year-old said. He then declared several times that he would "talk to anyone if they wanted to talk to me" – referring, in his own words, to the Greens, the SPD, and also "the pseudo-conservative CDU."

Maaßen received support from Berlin party and parliamentary group leader Kristin Brinker and the parliamentary group's legal policy spokesperson, Thorsten Weiß. Brinker said that Weiß certainly brings "good expertise." He knows what he's talking about. She also considered the classification of him as right-wing extremist "completely absurd." She then asked rhetorically: "What is freedom of expression worth" when someone is disparaged like that?

And for Thorsten Weiß, known within the AfD as a particularly ardent supporter of Björn Höcke, the entire motion in the Interior Committee was "a campaign by the Greens against us." It equated "right" with "right-wing extremist," and that was not suitable "to combat the truly dangerous acts of right-wing extremists."

What remained somewhat unclear, however, was what Maaßen actually wanted to discuss with the representatives of the other parties in the committee. When it comes to right-wing extremism, the former top cop is clearly clear: "We don't have a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of action." He failed to elaborate on what measures would be necessary to combat it.

Maaßen knew exactly what wouldn't help. The Green Party's motion contained "platitudes and meaningless wishful thinking." The point, he said, was: "We don't need to spend money on sometimes obscure scientific work." It's also not enough to say that one wants to strengthen the public prosecutors' offices. This is a "cheap statement," Maaßen said.