In the crisis of the Kenya coalition in Saxony-Anhalt, the CDU and the Greens are trying to relax. At the weekend there were talks between both parties over the dispute over a CDU local politician, who is accused of links to the neo-Nazi scene, said Saxony-Anhalt's CDU general secretary Sven Schulze on the RBB's Inforadio.
The CDU politician Robert Möritz is said to have worked as a folder at a neo-Nazi demonstration eight years ago. He is also criticized for wearing a tattoo with a so-called "black sun" that was used by the SS during the reign of the National Socialists and contains three swastikas on top of each other. In addition, Möritz had committed himself to the controversial Uniter association, from which he claims to have quit.
The dispute in the Kenya coalition, which has existed since 2016, escalated after the Greens made a contribution due to Möritz with the title "How many swastikas have space in the CDU?" published. The CDU then questioned the government alliance with the Greens and the SPD.
"Grant second chance in case of doubt"
CDU general secretary Schulze now said that the head of the Greens, Sebastian Striegel, had made it clear to him that the Greens may have been misunderstood. You would not have meant the entire CDU.
Schulze also defended his party colleague Möritz. In his district association Anhalt-Bitterfeld, the latter took a position on the allegations that the district association had waived the consequences.
"I think it is important that people who give us credible insurance, or in this case credible assurance to the district association, that they no longer have anything to do with this attitude and that they ask for a second chance that they should take this second chance in case of doubt must also grant, "said Schulze.
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Green politician Striegel had previously explained that the Möritz personnel was primarily the responsibility of the CDU. "In the end, the CDU has to answer the question for itself whether someone with a triple swastika emblem on their elbows can work for them as an official." He told the dpa news agency: "We have a coalition agreement that we would like to work through."
The dispute over Möritz is not the first public conflict between the coalition partners. Only at the end of November did Interior Minister Holger Stahlknecht (CDU) trigger violent criticism from the coalition partners because he wanted to bring the controversial police unionist Rainer Wendt to Magdeburg as State Secretary.