German Opposition Criticizes Merkel for Ignoring NSA Spying

MOSCOW (Sputnik), Yulia Shamporova — The recent espionage scandal involving NSA spying on German leaders has shown that Berlin is playing an increasingly subordinate role in its alliance with the United States, the deputy spokesman of a German opposition Die Linke party (Left Party) told Sputnik on Thursday.

Hanno Harnisch said that by playing into the hand of US security services, the government has become part of the problem.

"Germany behaves as an American vassal, they depend on America, they are not on an equal level… It seems awful for our party that the government of Angela Merkel becomes more and more part of the problem, not providing the solution for that," Harnisch stressed.

Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the US National Security Agency (NSA), made public in 2013 documents revealing that the agency had bugged phones of several EU leaders, including German heads.

Secret government documents published on the WikiLeaks website earlier this month revealed the NSA had eavesdropped on 56 top German officials, including Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Earlier this year, German media reported that US agents had used a Bavarian intelligence facility to spy on Germans. The Merkel administration has refused to disclose the list of spying targets.