Two months before national elections, German Chancellor Angela Merkel found herself besieged by questions about US spying, insisting Friday that she has not been remiss in confronting the Americans about their surveillance activities.
The chancellor's traditional 1-hour summer news conference was dominated by questions about snooping, including allegations by NSA leaker Edward Snowden that the US has been spying on its European allies.
Merkel's opponents in the September 22 parliamentary elections have seized on the issue, asserting that she has not done enough to protect Germans' privacy. Although polls show Merkel with a comfortable lead, the issue has created turbulence in what had looked like a smooth glide to a third term as chancellor.
Protecting personal data is an especially sensitive topic in Germany because of abuses by communist East Germany's secret police, the Communist Stasi, and the Nazis' Gestapo.
Read more: Germany's Merkel urges patience on NSA answers - The Times of India
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