Nazi debate in the CDU: the questions remain

In the end, Robert Möritz himself took the final decision. "Sometimes it is necessary to reflect on the real priorities in life," he wrote in a statement in which he declared his immediate exit from the CDU on Friday. He probably saved the Christian Democrats in Saxony-Anhalt from further agonizing debates, revelations, and crisis meetings.

Which does not mean that the matter is completely done for the CDU Saxony-Anhalt. The Möritz case may be for the time being. But the question remains: How are the Christian Democrats dealing with the delimitation to the far right?

In a monastery in Magdeburg, the CDU party leadership went to the press on Thursday evening - Möritz was still a member - and announced their decision: Möritz should explain himself completely in writing, "without gaps and completely". He should let his party post rest for so long. Anyone who wears identifying marks on their bodies that suggest a right-wing extremist attitude "cannot be a member of the CDU Saxony-Anhalt".

It is remarkable that the governing party CDU has to declare such a matter of course. Möritz, 29, was CDU board member in the Anhalt-Bitterfeld district until Friday. After his radical right-wing past was exposed a few days ago, he was unable to credibly distance himself from it. But his party friends initially stood by him. The coalition partners criticized the handling of the cause violently, even a break in the Kenya alliance threatened.

Now the CDU Möritz wanted to give one last chance. On December 28, he should explain himself again, put all the facts on the table. The party had previously asked him to show his police certificate of good conduct. CDU general secretary Sven Schulze urged him to request his information from the protection of the constitution.

Möritz wears a tattoo with several swastikas, a "black sun". He was a folder in 2011 at a neo-Nazi demonstration, and showed sympathy for a right-wing extremist band in 2015. These are all traces from Möritz's social networks. Until last weekend, he was a member of the Uniter association, which is suspected of having far-right connections.

Allies also opposed Möritz

Möritz maintains that he is no longer a right-wing extremist, but has repeatedly been caught up in contradictions in his own investigation. The case will no longer be really cleared up after the resignation.

Möritz should not voluntarily turn his back on the CDU. The number of those who no longer believed him had grown more and more recently. Even in his "Conservative Circle", a party within the party on the right-hand side of the CDU, there was last advice to him to leave the office of board member in Anhalt-Bitterfeld. Tenor in the party: Möritz does not credibly manage to distance himself from right-wing extremism. The pressure on Möritz to take consequences himself had grown steadily.

If Möritz's disposition remains unclear, the party leadership still has to work out how to deal with the matter. The blame can be seen in the party on the Anhalt-Bitterfeld district executive, who was too quick and too vehemently behind Möritz. Instead of calmly clarifying the matter, the party even briefly questioned the coalition at the urging of some district chairmen. A quick and clear distancing from right-wing extremism was missing.

Again, as with the occupation of the controversial police trade unionist Rainer Wendt, the party had acted chaotically and sometimes sent contradictory signals. As so often, the coalition partners clashed violently.

District association admits mistakes

The district chairman of Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Matthias Egert, conceded to SPIEGEL that he had made a mistake. He still believes Möritz that he is not an active right-wing radical, but his trust in him has also been eroded because Möritz was very hesitant to clarify his past. "I underestimated the dynamics of this case," said Egert.

The fundamental conflict for the CDU in Saxony-Anhalt remains: The party cracks when it comes to how easy it is to hold the rights.

The party leadership, around CDU leader Holger Stahlknecht and Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff, does not manage to keep the party in line. Even though both believe that they are distancing themselves from any cooperation with the AfD, the forces in the party who see it differently are strong: when faction councils call for the "national to be reconciled with the social" if the CDU and AfD are temporarily united in the Eilsleben council Form Art Fraction or only this week in the city council of Halle the CDU apparently holds an anti-Semite from the AfD in one post. Or when a district executive stands behind you with a man with dubious connections.

Stahlknecht just barely survived a vote of confidence in the parliamentary group and in the party executive, his authority has been compromised. In order not to spoil anyone, attempts were made to keep the case of the local politician Möritz small, kneeling at the head of the federal party not to speak out in order not to give the matter any more weight.

It was a matter of course, say critics in the party. By Thursday evening, the regional party leaders had failed to make a clear announcement: that a man with a tattooed swastika on his arm could not be a member of the CDU.