Germany appointing a Turkish-origin head of domestic intelligence
Sinan Selen, deputy head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the domestic intelligence agency, is set to take over the leadership of the office.
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt is scheduled to propose Celine’s name to the cabinet on Wednesday, which is expected to support the nomination. The position has been vacant since last November, and is being led by Selen, 53, alongside fellow Vice President Silke Willems, on an interim basis.
Selen will be the first non-German-born person to lead the domestic intelligence agency.
He was born in Istanbul, Türkiye 1972, and immigrated to Germany with her family at the age of 4 (1976). The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, headquartered in Cologne, is responsible for protecting the democratic system in Germany.
The office’s staff are tasked with monitoring potential extremist and terrorist threats, ranging from right-wing and left-wing extremism to Islamist terrorism and cybercrime.
Earlier this year, the agency made headlines by upgrading its rating of the right-wing, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party—the largest opposition force in the German parliament—from suspected right-wing extremism to confirmed, citing what it described as the party’s unconstitutional and xenophobic efforts.
This designation, which would expand the powers of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution to monitor the party’s activities, has been suspended pending the outcome of the party’s legal proceedings against the designation.
