As of: January 26, 2024, 6:02 a.m
By: Bona Hyun
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The former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution Maaßen wants to leave the CDU.
According to his own statements, he wants to concentrate on building the union of values.
Berlin – The former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen, says he wants to leave the CDU.
The Thuringian politician announced on Thursday (January 25) on Platform X
that he had decided to end his membership in the CDU
.
Head of the Union of Values Maaßen announces that he is leaving the party
Maaßen gave the following reason: “The CDU has given up its values and basic beliefs in recent years,” said the chairman of the Union of Values.
“It only gives the impression of being a bourgeois alternative to red-green, but in the end it is just its variant.
The #MerzUnion can no longer be reformed,” Maaßen wrote on X. He also posted a picture with a cut-up CDU sign.
Maaßen confirmed his plans to the
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
.
“When a horse is dead, you have to unsaddle - and the CDU is not only heart-dead, but now also brain-dead,” he told the newspaper.
Maaßen leaves the CDU - he previously decided to found the values union
Most recently, Maaßen set the course for the founding of his own party with the ultra-conservative Values Union.
In contrast to the CDU, it should be “ready to talk in all political directions”; the AfD is not explicitly excluded.
The Union of Values is not a party division of the CDU, but had sought proximity to it for a long time.
Last weekend, the association formally decided to transfer the naming rights to the Values Union to the planned party.
Federal Chairman Maaßen was given the mandate to “initiate the founding of a conservative-liberal party under this name,” explained the Union of Values.
The former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen (archive photo).
© Martin Schutt/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
Maaßen spoke of breaking away from the CDU/CSU union of values.
“It has been opposed by the party establishment since its founding in 2017,” he explained.
The 61-year-old has been in an ongoing conflict with the CDU leadership for a long time - they accuse him, among other things, of using "language from the milieu of anti-Semites and conspiracy ideologists, including ethnic expressions" - a party expulsion process against the lawyer and former top official has been ongoing since 2023.
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Maaßen wants to build a union of values - and wants to place the party between the CDU and AfD
A Maaßen party would be the second prominent new foundation in 2024. At the beginning of the year, the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance of the former left-wing politician had already been founded as a party.
Both formations also aim to steal votes from the AfD.
Maaßen wants to place his party between the CDU and AfD; he sees a gap there.
However, the Free Voters are also still active on the site.
At the beginning of January, Maaßen surprisingly announced the founding of the party.
He attracted nationwide attention, and now the CDU seems almost relieved.
A CDU spokesman recently confirmed that anyone who becomes a member of the planned party of the conservative union of values cannot remain in the CDU.
The party statutes exclude dual memberships.
“CDU members who continue to belong to the so-called Union of Values must leave the CDU or face exclusion proceedings,” said the spokesman.
CSU General Secretary Martin Huber made similar comments.
(bohy/dpa)