The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

CDU man with right-wing extremist past: Saxony-Anhalt's fall

2019-12-15T14:41:10.408Z


The CDU in Saxony-Anhalt introduces itself to a member with a far-right past. The coalition with Greens and SPD threatens to break. Prime Minister Haseloff could then only continue with the help of the AfD.



It was, of all people, a member of the Jewish community in Halle who uncovered a right-wing connection in the Saxony-Anhalt CDU a few days ago - and thus triggered a coalition crisis in the state's government.

In a tweet, Halle's Juso Igor Matviyets asked the CDU how it could be that the Christian Democrats in Saxony-Anhalt explicitly write in their basic paper that Islam is not part of Germany.

The answer: Robert Möritz, a CDU local politician from Anhalt-Bitterfeld. "Islam is not compatible with the Christian values ​​on which Germany is based," wrote the 29-year-old physiotherapist. A "shift to the right" in the CDU described by Matviyets is rather "a step towards the soul of the CDU". Matviyets noticed a small symbol on the profile photo of the answering politician: a sword stuck in a cross. It is the symbol of the controversial Uniter association, which is suspected of having extreme right-wing connections.

The discovery of the Juso caused a coalition crisis in Saxony-Anhalt within a few days. As a result, Möritz's extreme right-wing past emerged. The CDU, SPD and Greens have ruled in Magdeburg since 2016 and have clashed violently in the past. The SPD and Greens are now more vehemently opposed to the CDU than ever before: it is about the CDU's handling of right-wing extremism in its own ranks.

What is Uniter?

Uniter is a group of former security forces that claims to develop security concepts and to promote contact with one another. It was founded in 2016 by the native of Halle and KSK sergeant André S. Under the code name "Hannibal" S. he is said to have built up a highly conspiratorial network of right-wing soldiers in the Bundeswehr. The Uniter connection temporarily reached the state constitutional protection in Baden-Württemberg.

A few weeks ago, the German government said that Uniter was currently "not an object of surveillance for the protection of the constitution", but that it was pursuing "indications of extremist efforts".

In fact, Möritz's Facebook profile, which has now admitted to belonging to Uniter, found traces of his far-right past. In May 2011 he attended a neo-Nazi march in Halle. As he says, he was there as a security guard. However, private security forces are banned from political demonstrations in Saxony-Anhalt. In the meantime Möritz confessed his right-wing extremist past, speaks of "straying" of his youth: "I distance myself here again today from extremist currents of all stripes," he said. The CDU district board Anhalt-Bitterfeld unanimously voted on Thursday that the party wanted to stick to Möritz and did not distance itself. The in turn said on Sunday that he had left Uniter.

DPA / Peter Gercke

Holger Stahlknecht, Minister of the Interior and CDU Head of State of Saxony-Anhalt: "This action by the Greens puts the coalition in question"

The Kenya coalition before the end

For the coalition partner of the CDU, the Greens, the Möritz case is an affront. Even if Möritz distanced himself from his past, it could not be that the CDU accepted such people in its party committees. "How many swastikas have space in the CDU?" Asked the Green State Presidents Susan Sziborra-Seidlitz and Sebastian Striegel in a press release - an allusion to a tattoo by Möritz that shows several swastikas. Striegel has been campaigning against right-wing extremism for years and receives death threats from the scene.

The CDU general secretary Sven Schulze, in turn, apologized from the Greens. "Without an apology, there is a boom, then a continuation of the coalition is hardly conceivable," said Schulze. CDU country chief Holger Stahlknecht agrees with his general secretary. "This action by the Greens puts the coalition in question," Stahlknecht told the "Magdeburg Volksstimme".

The Green Leader has already made it clear that it will not apologize. "It is not a general suspicion at all," says Striegel the SPIEGEL, it is about dealing with the Möritz case. Support also comes from the other coalition partner, the SPD. "The CDU in Saxony-Anhalt has to make a decision: a coalition of reason led by it or a march to the right into the political no man's land," said SPD head Burkhard Lischka SPIEGEL.

Government officials say Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff has already made it clear that he does not want to interfere in the conflict. The CDU parliamentary group Ulrich Thomas wrote on Twitter that his district association Harz supports "the convening of a special party convention if necessary" to end the Kenya coalition.

The situation is particularly tricky for Stahlknecht, the head of the CDU. He only barely survived the affair with police unionist Rainer Wendt, whom he wanted to make his secretary of state in the Interior Ministry and thus failed. If he should bring up further parts of the CDU against him, he should hardly be able to keep up.

The dispute thus shows how strong the so-called "conservative circle" in Saxony-Anhalt has become, which could now tip the scales. The state board accepted the group of several CDU politicians founded in 2017 as a party-internal body. At the small state party convention, it recently prevailed that the party would not rule out a minority government tolerating the AfD in the future. The group is still behind Stahlknecht, they say. If Stahlknecht distances himself from them, this support will be history.

Connections between "conservative circle" and Uniter

The former neo-Nazi Möritz also belongs to the conservative circle. The committee is chaired by Matthias Egert, who is the district chairman of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, who supports Möritz. According to SPIEGEL information, Kai Mehliß, an active member of the conservative group, is also with Uniter. Last week he organized a meeting of the connection in his place of residence in Bernburg. When asked by SPIEGEL, he does not want to comment on this.

How many Uniter people are still active in the conservative circle of the CDU is unclear. Gerhard Oertel, also a member of the conservative circle, tells SPIEGEL that he knew nothing about these connections and clearly distances himself from right-wing extremism. Neither Möritz and Mehliß were noticed with right-wing extremist statements. Regardless, he sees no future for the coalition in Saxony-Anhalt. "Kenya was an experiment that clearly failed in my eyes," he says.

If the coalition breaks up, Saxony-Anhalt will face violent upheavals. The state parliament will discuss the budget next week. Should the SPD and Greens leave the coalition and continue to govern the CDU as a minority government, the Christian Democrats would probably have to work with the AfD immediately. The conservative circle would have finally prevailed, so leading circles of the Greens see it. Several members of the CDU have already announced their departure if it comes to this.

For Juso Igor Matviyets, who got the discussion rolling with his tweet, a terrifying idea. "After the assassination attempt in Halle, the CDU chairman and interior minister Holger Stahlknecht promised us Jews that we would be better protected," Matviyets told SPIEGEL. "Now he is protecting a neo-Nazi, that speaks for itself."

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2019-12-15

You may like

News/Politics 2024-03-08T05:01:57.506Z
News/Politics 2024-02-21T11:04:13.768Z

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.