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Germany’s coalition government has agreed to appoint Sinan Selen, a counterterrorism expert originally from Turkey, as head of the country’s domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), according to German media reports.
Selen, 53, is currently deputy chief of the BfV, which monitors extremist threats to Germany’s democracy. He will succeed Thomas Haldenwang, who retired in late 2024 to run for parliament.
The German Interior Ministry on Monday declined to confirm the appointment but did not dispute the reports.
If confirmed by the German cabinet this week, Selen will become the first BfV president not born in Germany. He was born in İstanbul in 1972 and moved to Cologne with his family at the age of 4, growing up as the son of Turkish immigrants. He studied law at the University of Cologne, specializing in domestic and judicial policy in Europe and European law.
Selen has held a series of senior security posts during a career spanning more than two decades. At the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany, he worked in state security and was part of a special unit investigating the Hamburg cell tied to the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. In 2006 he led the manhunt after two suitcase bombs were discovered on German trains.
From 2009 to 2011 he served in the Federal Police, where he was responsible for combating cross-border crime. Following the 2015 refugee crisis he was named the government’s coordinator on Turkey, reflecting his expertise on migration and security ties with Ankara.
Selen briefly left public service in 2016 to join travel company TUI, overseeing global security for its staff, hotels, aircraft and cruise ships. He returned to government in 2019 as deputy head of the BfV, sharing interim leadership of the agency after Haldenwang’s departure last year.
Lawmakers from across Germany’s political spectrum welcomed the choice. Roderich Kiesewetter from the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) called it an “excellent personnel decision,” while Green Party security expert Konstantin von Notz praised Selen’s “experience and competence” but criticized the government for taking more than 120 days to fill the post.
Germany’s coalition government includes the conservative CDU/the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), which came out as the winner of the general election in February and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD).
As BfV chief, Selen will face challenges that include Russian espionage, fallout from Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza and the rise of far-right extremism. The agency is also in a legal fight over whether the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party can be classified as a “proven extremist organization,” a designation that could pave the way for an eventual ban.