Row over spymaster's future splits German coalition

BERLIN, September 13 (Reuters): Leaders of Germany's ruling parties will hold a crisis meeting on Thursday to try to agree whether the head of the domestic intelligence agency should keep his job, two government sources told Reuters.   Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), has been under fire since a newspaper interview two weeks ago in which he questioned the authenticity of video footage showing right-wing extremists hounding migrants.   The centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), coalition partners of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, want to fire Maassen. Conservative interior minister Horst Seehofer says he sees no reason to do so.   SPD general secretary Lars Klingbeil signalled that the party, saying: "Merkel needs to act now."   But Seehofer, who leads Bavaria's conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), told lawmakers he had confidence in Maassen, whom he described as an opponent of right-wing radicalism.   Maassen appeared on Wednesday before the domestic affairs committee of the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag.   "He gave a convincing explanation of his actions," Seehofer said. "He convincingly refuted several conspiracy theories and he took a persuasive stand against right-wing radicalism."   The sources said the differences would be thrashed out at the meeting of party leaders from 3:30 p.m. (1330 GMT).   The BfV denied a report by the public broadcaster ARD that said Maassen had told a lawmaker from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) about parts of a report from his agency before it was published.   Jeering and shouting could be heard from lawmakers as Seehofer mounted his defence of Maassen, whose questioning of the video's authenticity was greeted with incredulity by some politicians and reporters on the scene.   Tensions have been running high in parts of eastern Germany since the death of a German man after an altercation with two Middle Eastern refugees, which led to weeks of marching and protests that were well attended by far-right groups.