The German cabinet is set for a crunch meeting on Tuesday on the fate of the country’s domestic intelligence agency chief the day after the chancellor, Angela Merkel, reportedly decided he had waded too far into day-to-day politics with his controversial remarks on far-right violence.

German spy chief contradicts Merkel over Chemnitz clashes Read more

The embattled head of the BfV agency, Hans-Georg Maaßen, has faced calls for his resignation after he questioned the authenticity of video footage showing far-right protesters chasing migrants in Chemnitz.

Die Welt, which cited government sources, said on Monday that Merkel viewed Maaßen’s position as untenable. It added her decision would stand regardless of the reaction of Maaßen’s direct superior, the interior minister, Horst Seehofer. The German government has declined to comment.

Maaßen came under fire after he contradicted Merkel’s description of a far-right protest in the eastern town. Merkel’s spokesman referred to the scenes as a Hetzjagd, or hounding of migrants. Maaßen, speaking to the Bild, said he had seen no evidence such events had taken place.

Play Video 1:08 Germany: Far-right protests lead to violence – video report

The Maaßen row has underscored the fault lines in Merkel’s ruling coalition. Merkel’s rebellious interior minister, who heads the Bavarian-based Christian Social Union (CSU), was quick to throw his weight behind Maaßen, while her junior partner, the left-wing Social Democrats (SPD), have repeatedly said he must go.

Last week, top politicians including Seehofer, and the Social Democrat leader, Andrea Nahles, failed to agree on the BfV chief’s future at a protracted meeting at Merkel’s office in Berlin. They were scheduled to reconvene on Tuesday.

Ahead of the closely watched meeting, Seehofer was upbeat. “I’m pretty optimistic tomorrow we will reach a final decision because of our responsibility for the continued existence of the government,” he said, adding that the “sensitive situation” required “prudent handling”.

The upcoming 14 October state election in Bavaria means that Seehofer is set on saving face. Recent polls have suggested support for his CSU party is sinking to its lowest level this year in its home region.

Media pundits have deemed Merkel’s failure to fire Maaßen as a sign of weakness, saying that earlier in her career he would not have lasted so long.

Merkel condemns far-right outbreak in passionate address Read more

The SPD and opposition parties have repeated demands for Maaßen to end his six-year stint at the top of BfV, or the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. “I can no longer trust him,” said Nahles, adding that protecting the constitution meant protecting democracy.

She criticised Maaßen’s comments as downplaying violent incidents in Chemnitz, which were reported and filmed by many witnesses. “Whoever makes himself an ally of rightwing conspiracy theories is out of place as the head of the office for constitutional protection.”

Names of potential Maaßen successors circulated in Berlin on Tuesday, but the political landscape had deep fissures. Speculation was rife about the political fallout, including the outlook for Seehofer, long a thorn in Merkel’s side. According to Die Welt, Maaßen told a group of conservative politicians last Thursday that “Horst Seehofer told me that if I fall, he will then fall too.”

Ahead of the crisis meeting, the anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland party (AfD) and other Merkel critics went on the defensive, framing Germany’s top domestic spy as a martyr in the making. “This is a case of a human being done in in every way possible. It is below the belt,” CDU politician Armin Schuster, a leading opponent of Merkel’s 2015 open-door immigration policy, told the newspaper Stuttgarter Zeitung.

Maaßen’s doubts about the extent of racism and violence in Chemnitz chime with comments by the AfD. The party’s co-leader Alexander Gauland has accused the Chancellor of spreading “fake news”. Alice Weidel, its other leader, posted on Facebook that Maaßen was being “put through the mangle” for his criticism of Merkel’s stance on migration.

Both Merkel and Seehofer have separately insisted that the coalition government would not crumble over the Maaßen issue. But commentators have argued that the long-running debate has paralysed German politics, distracting decision-makers from tackling far-right violence in the wake of the Chemnitz protests in late August.

On a visit to Finland, German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for a swift end to the Maaßen row. During a meeting in the Latvian capital Riga, he said he had noted a “sharp” foreign gaze on developments in Germany. He underscored how important it was for Europeans to be able to work with “a stable Germany and a stable government”.