Three German Political Parties Supporting Snowden’s Asylum

With Edward Snowden willing to testify to a German parliamentary committee about the NSA’s mass electronic spying on Germany there is growing support in Germany for them to offer Edward Snowden aslyum in gratitude of his services to them. So far in Germany the Green Party, Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Left party have all come out in support of Snowden.

“We think it would be a good signal if Edward Snowden were granted safe conduct in Germany, if he were received here, if he could be a witness here,” stated Claudia Roth, Green Party vice chairman.

“I believe Snowden has contributed more to keep us informed than any secret service,” Expressed Bernd Riexinger, chairman of the Left Party

However, legal complications within Germany exist which make such an asylum offering near-impossible. Germany would have to break its extradition treaty with the USA which it has signed as part of its EU membership. This can be done if the extradition is for an “offence of political nature”, which arguably Snowden’s case is, but there are still numerous complications with that including deteriorating German-American relations.

“He is not being politically persecuted – he is being prosecuted as a criminal. There are no provisions in the German constitution that would entitle him to make such a claim,” Said Grosse-Brömer of ruling party CDU.

As it stands Snowden is most likely to be questioned by the German parliamentary commission on Russian soil, or via a video link, but German federal prosecutors are still awaiting Russian approval for that. Green Party vice chairman Claudia Roth is still pushing for him to be questioned on German soil. When asked if such a move was provoking the USA she stated that:

“The monstrous act of provocation is the fact that our chancellor was quite clearly under surveillance by the NSA, that opposition politicians were also quite clearly under systematic surveillance.”

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