German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks to Finance Minister Olaf Scholz at the start of the 2019 budget debate at the lower house of parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, September 11, 2018. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke

BERLIN (Reuters) - Officials in charge of Germany’s major security authorities must be above all suspicion, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said on Thursday, leveling thinly veiled criticism at domestic intelligence chief Hans-Georg Maassen.

Many in Scholz’s Social Democrat (SPD) party want Maassen to be sacked after he questioned the authenticity of video footage showing right extremists chasing immigrants through a city’s streets in an interview that caused widespread consternation.

“Anyone who has responsibility for the major security organs of our country has to stand above all doubt,” Scholz told an economic forum in Berlin organized by the SPD. “And that has to be reassessed every so often. I think there is work to be done there right now.”