The new chairman of the Union of Values, Max Otte, had recently attacked his party colleague Friedrich Merz sharply.
Now he has responded to the verbal attack.
Berlin - The CDU economic politician Friedrich Merz has called on the CDU members to leave the ultra-conservative values union.
"I urge all CDU members to leave the so-called Union of Values and to shape the future together in the CDU," said Merz, who is part of the election campaign team of CDU chairman Armin Laschet, of the German press agency in Berlin. The ex-Union faction leader attacked the new chairman of the Union of Values, the economist Max Otte, sharply.
Otte "apparently doesn't know the difference between lobbying and professional activity as a lawyer and supervisory board," said Merz. Otte had said at the weekend that Merz was burdened by his previous lobbying activities and should "not take over a state office, even if the lobbying activity is dormant". Merz was previously chairman of the supervisory board for Germany of the US asset manager Blackrock. The mandate ended on March 31, 2020 - so it's not just dormant. Merz said: "The unqualified envelopes from Mr. Otte should give the members of this self-proclaimed value union something to think about."
The Values Union sees itself as a representative of the conservative current in the Union, but is not an official party division.
According to its own information, its membership is over 4,000 - including members without a CDU party book.
The CDU has a total of around 400,000 members, the CSU has around 140,000.
After the controversial election of Otte, the Union of Values shows ever stronger signs of disintegration.
Members of various state boards resigned in protest against Otte's course.
Internal critics accuse Otte of moving the Union of Values to the right and wanting to open up to the AfD.
Otte reacted calmly and, according to his own statements, assumes that the Union of Values will emerge stronger from this process.
The leadership of the CDU around party leader Armin Laschet will meet this Monday (9:00 a.m.) in Berlin for their last official deliberations before the summer break. First the smaller party presidium meets in a hybrid form, later the larger executive committee is added. The processes in the Union of Values should only play a marginal role, if at all. It was expected that the party committees would, among other things, deal with the upcoming election campaign for the Bundestag election in September. dpa
