The CDU leadership's handling of the Möritz case has been misunderstood by leading social democrats. The party leadership around Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer has been silent for far too long, criticized Carsten Schneider, parliamentary director of the SPD parliamentary group. Her behavior is "clumsy".
"The Saxony-Anhalt state association of the CDU has always been on the far right," said Schneider. "You could almost say: this is the wing of the CDU." Schneider thus alluded to the national-ethnic network in the AfD around Thuringia's country chief Björn Höcke. He described the Möritz case as "litmus test for the CDU leadership whether the regional association remains in the democratic spectrum".
The CDU local politician Robert Möritz admitted to his district association that he was used as a folder at a neo-Nazi demonstration eight years ago. He also wears a tattoo with a "black sun" that was used by the SS during the Nazi regime and consists of three swastikas, one on top of the other.
The dispute over Möritz is weighing on the Kenya coalition of CDU, Greens and SPD that rules in Saxony-Anhalt. The CDU argues that Möritz has credibly distanced itself from its past, the SPD and the Greens doubt it.
The problem is not limited to a CDU district association in Saxony-Anhalt, said Schneider. A strong part of the CDU there is ready to switch to the AfD camp if the Kenya coalition breaks, warned Schneider. In large parts of the CDU parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt there is "greater affinity with AfD deputies than with those of the SPD".
Klingbeil criticizes "dam break to the right"
SPD general secretary Lars Klingbeil had previously called for Kramp-Karrenbauer to intervene. It is "absolutely incomprehensible" that the CDU chief and general secretary Paul Ziemiak with such clear signs of right tendencies in their own ranks "close their eyes and only attract attention by silence," said Klingbeil to the "Tagesspiegel".
The SPD sees the behavior of the CDU in Saxony-Anhalt as a "dam break to the right", emphasized the SPD general secretary. So far, however, no one in the CDU seems to have decided at the state or federal level to do anything about it. This is "either naive or trivializing, in any case it is a problem and dangerous for the cohesion in our country", criticized Klingbeil.
On Thursday, according to a report by the "Mitteldeutsche Zeitung", the CDU state executive board wants to meet with the district chairmen in Magdeburg for a crisis meeting. CDU Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff told the newspaper: "Without ifs and buts: swastikas and CDU are not possible." However, he did not comment on concrete consequences for Möritz. The party committees should discuss this, he said.
CDU MP calls on Möritz to withdraw
The CDU member of the Bundestag, Kees de Vries, now demanded that Möring should leave his post on the district board until the allegations were resolved. "As a district executive committee, you also have a role model function - there are at least doubts about this at the moment," de Vries told the editorial network Germany.
The MP is thus opposed to the assessments of his district executive in Anhalt-Bitterfeld. This had decided unanimously last Friday to hold on to Möritz in his party function.
De Vries is considered liberal in the CDU parliamentary group, while the district chairman of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Matthias Egert, is considered arch-conservative in the party. He is also chairman of the "conservative circle", a group legitimized by the CDU state executive, which calls for the opening of the Christian Democrats to work with the AfD.
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