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Hans-Georg Maaßen in Suhl in April
Photo: Jens Schlueter / AFP
The top of the CDU is distancing itself from Hans-Georg Maaßen.
In a unanimous vote, the federal executive condemned postings critical of the vaccination by the former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, as announced by General Secretary Paul Ziemiak.
Maassen's requests to speak had "nothing to do with CDU politics, absolutely nothing," said Ziemiak.
The warning of alleged dangers from vaccination is unscientific and dangerous.
"We strongly reject them," said Ziemiak.
Ziemiak did not want to join the suggestion of the Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans to ask Maaßen to leave the party.
The General Secretary pointed out that Maaßen had first been asked for an interview by the head of his CDU regional association in Thuringia.
Maassen ran for the CDU in southern Thuringia in the federal elections, but lost to the SPD politician and Olympic winner Frank Ullrich.
On New Year's Eve, Maaßen distributed a video calling for the corona vaccinations to be stopped, and described this as a moving appeal.
"Further removed from the basic values in the CDU"
The Schleswig-Holstein Education Minister Karin Prien then demanded his exclusion from the CDU.
"In the past weeks and months, Mr. Maassen has moved further and further away from the basic values of the CDU," Prien told SPIEGEL.
The video that Maaßen distributed came from the controversial researcher Sucharit Bhakdi.
Bhakdi has long been popular with “lateral thinkers” because of his theses.
He was also noticed with anti-Semitic remarks.
The CDU leadership also distanced itself from this.
"Anti-Semitic statements should have no place in our country," said Ziemiak.
Such content should not be shared by CDU members.
The CDU federal executive board also expressly calls on people to be vaccinated against the corona virus.
more on the subject
Maassen's conspiracy myths: The Wendler of the CDU, a column by Markus Feldenkirchen
Dealing with Hans-Georg Maaßen: Kühnert accuses the CDU of comfort and excessive demands
Statements by the ex-President for the Protection of the Constitution: Thuringia's CDU quotes Maaßen for an interview
Kühnert criticizes the CDU's handling of measures
SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert had recently criticized the CDU's dealings with Maassen.
He told SPIEGEL that the debate about its "ongoing political transgressions and agitation" was more than an internal argument about the spectrum of opinions of a conservative party.
It is not only about a possible party exclusion procedure against Maaßen, but about the enforcement of a conviction in one's own ranks.
"Instead, Saxon CDU local politicians are allowed to play the keyboard of self-proclaimed lateral thinkers with impunity and the CDU Thuringia invites Maaßen to an educational coffee party that will not impress him very much," says Kühnert.
slü / AFP