Wolfgang Bosbach's appearance with Hans-Georg Maaßen has further consequences: After severe criticism, the CDU veteran no longer wants to campaign for his party.
Cologne - After an election campaign scandal, a CDU veteran throws in the towel: After the excitement about an appearance with the controversial right-wing hardliner Hans-Georg Maaßen, Wolfgang Bosbach no longer wants to promote his party before elections.
"That's it then," the
Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
quoted
the CDU politician on Friday.
“I've been in politics for 49 years and in the alleged land of poets and thinkers I couldn't imagine the extent of agitation,” Bosbach said in his podcast “Bosbach & Rach - Die Wochenester”.
"If so-called party friends don't put out the fire but try to get in line, then I have to say: This is not my world."
Maassen reactions upset Bosbach: CDU veteran defends deadline and throws in towel - "That's it then"
Therefore, the Bundestag election campaign is the last that he will contest for the CDU. "I will of course keep my obligations, but that's it then," said Bosbach. At his appearance with Maaßen, he explained that he had been invited by the three CDU district associations in southern Thuringia that Maaßen had nominated as a direct candidate for the Bundestag. He is "not the one who calls out to party friends in southern Thuringia from a distance of 350 kilometers that they are all idiots" - apparently an allusion to CDU Vice Serap Guler and her harsh criticism of Maassen's nomination.
Bosbach also pointed out that other Union politicians would plan appearances with Maaßen, including a parliamentary deputy and a former federal minister. He has known Maassen for more than 20 years. At first he “didn't know at all that Mr. Maaßen was a CDU member”.
Maaßen was head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution from 2012 to 2018.
After right-wing extremist riots in the summer of 2018, Maaßen had triggered his replacement at the top of the secret service with provocative to puzzling statements - and followed a path of verbal escalation that ultimately led to his retirement instead of the Ministry of the Interior.
After the claim that there were “radical left forces” in the SPD, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer (CSU) also dropped Maaßen.
The CDU politician recently repeated a core thesis of the scandal at the time that there had been “no hunts” in Chemnitz.
Bosbach turns his back on CDU election campaigns after Maassen's appearance - not the first violent departure
Bosbach had already expressed angry about the reactions to his appointment with Maaßen. “Up until now I still thought that the Federal Republic of Germany is a country in which, despite political differences, one can deal with one another in a civilized manner. But to this extent of agitation and malice, I'm sorry, that's it, "he said in front of the cameras in a statement - and then promptly disappeared angrily from the picture. Bosbach had clashed with SPD celebrity Karl Lauterbach, among others. This attested “a disgrace for the whole CDU. Maassen is just too close to Nazi positions. "
It is not the first time that Bosbach attracts attention with an impulsive exit. In 2017 he got up and disappeared in a current broadcast of the ARD talk format "Maischberger" - because he felt provoked by the politician Jutta Ditfurth. In an interview with
Münchner Merkur
, he described the situation in the talk at the time as "unbearable". (
AFP / fn
)
