Edward Snowden, the US spy agency contractor who leaked troves of classified information about the US government’s mass surveillance programmes, has stepped up his lobbying efforts to get asylum in Germany or France after spending the last six years in exile in Moscow. In a series of interviews with European media outlets coinciding with Tuesday’s release of his memoir Permanent Record , Snowden said that he hoped to be granted asylum in Germany or France, countries where he is widely considered to be a hero, especially among civil rights activists. He has also stated his desire to return to the United States, but only if he could get a fair trial. Snowden, who faces espionage charges that could send him to prison for decades, exposed the National Security Agency’s extensive eavesdropping efforts in 2013, in one of the largest leaks in US history. US whistle-blower Edward Snowden tells life story and why he leaked in new memoir While hiding in Hong Kong for a month after that leak, Snowden was hopeful of travelling on to Cuba and then Ecuador. But he got trapped in Moscow when the United States revoked his passport, and has been living there ever since. I wrote a book. pic.twitter.com/wEdlOFMnMn — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) August 1, 2019 “That’s been clear since day one,” Snowden told German network ZDF in an interview when asked if he wanted to get asylum in Germany and move to Berlin. “I never chose to come to Russia. I was actually transiting through Russia to Latin America. It’s the US government that orchestrated trapping me in Russia by cancelling my passport. ‘We don’t have a life here’: family of ‘Snowden refugees’ torn apart as Canada considers asylum request “I applied for asylum in 27 different countries around the world, including Germany, including France and including Norway – and the countries that we would like to see would stand up and protect whistle-blowers. So the answer (if he wanted to asylum in Germany) has always been and will always be: yes, of course.” Snowden made similar comments in an interview with France’s Inter radio station: “I applied for asylum in France in 2013 under (then President Francois) Hollande and, of course, we would love to see (President Emmanuel Macron) roll out an invitation. “But it’s not about France. It’s about Europe. It’s about the world and the system we have. Protecting whistle-blowers is not a hostile act. Welcoming someone like me is not an attack on the United States.” But that is not how granting asylum for Snowden would be seen in the corridors of power in the German and French capitals, where despite considerable differences of opinions on a myriad of issues over the last several years, the United States remains a most vital ally. Snowden also bristled in the French radio interview that fears of upsetting the United States could be thwarting his asylum bid: “The saddest thing of this whole story is that the only place an American whistle-blower has the chance to be heard is not in Europe but here (in Russia).” My Take: Julian Assange should have come to Hong Kong Even though leaders in the centre-left opposition parties in Berlin: from the Greens to the Left parties and even the Social Democrats (SPD), quickly spoke out in favour of Germany granted Snowden asylum, senior officials in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling Christian Democrats poured cold water on such scenario. “The betrayal of state secrets is quite rightly punishable by law in any country,” Juergen Hardt, the foreign policy point man in parliament for Merkel’s conservatives, told South China Morning Post . “Even though Edward Snowden claims to have acted for honourable reasons, he put the safety and lives of agents and informants at considerable risk. “Snowden isn’t a hero. It’s the courts that would ultimately decide on asylum applications as well as any extradition request. Even though some in other parties would like to see that happen, I cannot imagine any reason to justify granting Snowden political asylum in Germany.” Snowden has won awards and honours for civil courage in absentia during the last six years in Germany, a country where the dark history of the Gestapo during the Nazi era and the Stasi security police during the Communist East German era have left many people deeply suspicious of – and sensitive towards – any signs of state-sponsored eavesdropping of its own citizens. America’s NSA spy agency is losing elite hackers over low pay and flagging morale That it later emerged that the NSA had also wiretapped Merkel’s phone only served to galvanise the support for Snowden here. Ralf Stegner, deputy party leader of the centre-left SPD, told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that he was in favour of granting Snowden asylum and was joined in that opinion by the Greens parliamentary floor leader Anton Hofreiter as well as Katja Kipping, co-leader of the Left Party. “We nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize and demand that Germany grant him asylum.” The three centre-left parties hope to possibly form a ruling coalition after the next election due in 2021. In France, Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet told the RTL network at the weekend that she would be “in favour” of granting asylum. Arrested Canadian intelligence official Cameron Ortis had access to allies’ secrets, head of police agency says But she added she was speaking in a personal capacity and it was not an official offer from France. The Macron government has not yet had any comment on the Snowden interview, but a French diplomatic source told Reuters there had been no change since Snowden’s 2013 asylum request was rejected.