A widening scandal over claims that Germany helped the US spy on European targets triggered tensions in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition on Tuesday, which analysts said could threaten the “untouchable” leader.
Pressure has mounted over reports that Germany’s BND foreign intelligence agency snooped on European firms such as EADS, which became Airbus, as well as the French presidency and EU Commission on behalf of the US National Security Agency (NSA).
In the latest diplomatic fallout, Austria’s government on Tuesday said it had filed a legal complaint against an unnamed party concerning “secret intelligence to the detriment of Austria.”
German Minister of Economic Affairs and Social Democratic Party (SPD) leader Sigmar Gabriel took the affair up a notch on Monday, breaking a “taboo” by relaying a personal conversation he previously had with Merkel on the issue.
Gabriel, who is also the German vice-chancellor, said he had twice asked Merkel whether there was evidence of economic espionage.
“Both times the answer was ‘No,’ from the chancellor,” he said, adding he had no doubt she had answered his question “correctly.”
However, he said that if it turned out that Germany had a hand in helping the US snoop on companies, it “would be a big strain on the faith of the [German] economy in governmental behavior.”
“Gabriel’s strike,” Bild daily said, while Spiegel Online said the SPD leader had “distanced” himself from Merkel.
The center-left Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper said the SPD had “attacked” the chancellor.
Analysts viewed it as a “clever” maneuver by Gabriel, whose SPD party, junior partners in the “grand coalition,” continues to lag far behind Merkel’s conservatives in the polls.
He brought responsibility over the now weeks-long controversy to Merkel’s door, while stopping short of openly challenging her, they said, seeing potential for the three-time chancellor to take a hit.
Political analyst Jens Walther of Duesseldorf University said it was the “biggest crisis” for the coalition so far and “probably for Mrs Merkel, the biggest and most dangerous crisis for her in her 10 years governing.”
Carsten Koschmieder of Berlin’s Free University said he believed Gabriel was frustrated at the SPD’s failure to close the gap on Merkel, despite having successfully pushed through political gains, such as a national minimum wage.
“Now the SPD of course sees the opportunity to use this affair to distinguish itself and perhaps also to weaken the chancellor a bit,” he said.
Members of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) reacted with irritation to the SPD’s tack.
“The SPD seems currently to have abandoned the customary professional form of reserve,” said Patrick Sensburg, who serves as CDU chairman on a parliamentary committee probing NSA practices after earlier revelations.
Merkel on Monday defended the need for German foreign intelligence agents to cooperate with their US and other foreign counterparts to combat international terror threats.
She had previously not gone further than pledging a clarification of the matter.
Data privacy is a sensitive subject for Germans, haunted by historic surveillance by the Nazis and East Germany’s Stasi secret police, and revelations of US spying in 2013, including on Merkel’s mobile phone, caused uproar.
Merkel said at the time that spying between friends “is not on.”
However, the latest scandal has evolved more into a “who knew what when” issue, with German Minister of the Interior Thomas de Maiziere, a close Merkel ally, so far taking most of the heat as former chief of staff, a post that includes overseeing the intelligence services.
He was due to appear before a parliamentary intelligence services’ oversight committee yesterday.
Merkel would be ready to testify before the parliament’s NSA inquiry if she were called to do so, her spokesman said on Monday.
Bild wrote that Gabriel’s move paved the way for the 2017 general elections when he would hope to grab the chancellorship.
“There will be trouble brewing in the government until the next elections,” it said. “That will be bitter for the country.”
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