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Candidate for a direct mandate in the Bundestag for the CDU in southern Thuringia: Hans-Georg Maaßen
Photo: via www.imago-images.de / imago images / ari
The former President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and current CDU candidate for the Bundestag election, Hans-Georg Maaßen, has denied anti-Semitism allegations against him.
The climate activist and Greens supporter Luisa Neubauer had previously accused him of distributing the content of anti-Semitic blogs.
However, she did not give any specific examples.
"For me, these are unfounded and paperless allegations that I vigorously reject," Maassen told the dpa news agency on Monday.
Neubauer did not have any evidence to support their claims.
Nowadays anything can be said about everyone, said Maaßen.
"It is a brutalization of the political discourse that one has to take note of."
Neubauer had raised the allegations against Maassen on Sunday evening in the ARD program "Anne Will".
Linked to this was a criticism of CDU chancellor candidate Armin Laschet.
By his silence, he legitimized "racist, anti-Semitic, identity and incidentally also science-denying content", said Neubauer.
Laschet had replied: "I tell you he is not an anti-Semite and he does not distribute any anti-Semitic texts and if he did it would be a reason for exclusion from the party." Maassen now praised Laschet's attitude.
“I understand Mr. Laschet, his approach is correct.
There should be no room for anti-Semites in the CDU, ”said Maassen.
The former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution was nominated by four CDU district associations as a direct candidate for the Bundestag in southern Thuringia at the end of April.
This has been heavily criticized in some cases within the Union, but also by other parties.
Maaßen is controversial in parts of the CDU because of his critical stance on the federal government's liberal refugee policy in 2015 and 2016.
fek / dpa