The controversial ex-head of the constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen, is being asked by party colleagues to leave the CDU – but he has other plans.
Update from January 24, 3:47 p.m .:
The CDU is examining a party exclusion of the former head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen, in connection with the “racial theory” scandal.
A CDU spokeswoman said that Secretary General Mario Czaja had commissioned "the examination of party order measures up to and including party exclusion".
The background is interview statements by Maassen on the subject of racism.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz had previously sharply criticized the statements made by the former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen.
"The statements made by Mr. Maaßen are again unacceptable," said Merz, who is also chairman of the Union faction in the Bundestag, on Tuesday before a meeting of the CDU/CSU deputies in Berlin.
He added: "We will continue to deal with this case and also assess it from this point of view." When asked, however, Merz added that there should be no hasty decision on an exclusion procedure.
This is reported by fr.de.
First report: CDU politicians call on Maassen to leave the party: "Now it has to be over"
First report from January 24, 1:48 p.m.: Berlin – After several controversial statements by Hans-Georg Maaßen, CDU Secretary General Mario Czaja asked the former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution to leave the party.
The CDU is emphatically distancing itself from Maaßen's statements, Czaja wrote on Twitter on Tuesday (January 24).
“There is no place in our party for his statements and the ideas they express.
I therefore call on Mr. Maassen to resign from the CDU in Germany.”
Maassen had previously claimed in a tweet that the thrust of the "driving forces in the political and media space" was "eliminatory racism against whites".
He also gave an interview to the publicist Alexander Wallasch for his blog.
In this, Maassen also speaks of racism, which is "operated against the native Germans".
Frequent topics on Wallasch's blog include a supposed suspension of the rule of law during the corona pandemic and immigration, which is considered "illegal mass immigration".
The former head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has been spreading anti-scientific theses about the Covid vaccination for a long time.
We as the @CDU emphatically distance ourselves from the statements made by Hans Georg #Maassen.
Again and again he uses the language from the milieu of anti-Semites and conspiracy ideologues and again and again places himself close to the AfD.
1/3
— Mario Czaja (@MarioCzaja) January 24, 2023
The CDU state party also speaks out against Maassen: "No place in our midst"
The Thuringian CDU also distanced itself: "Mr. Maassen's statements reflect neither the language nor the mentality of the CDU Thuringia.
The language of anti-Semites and conspiracy ideologues has no place in our midst," said Christian Herrgott, Secretary General of the Thuringian CDU state association, of which Maassen is a member.
The Berlin CDU country chief Kai Wegner told the
Tagesspiegel
that Maassen had crossed another border.
"Now it has to be over.
Anyone who makes such statements has no place in the CDU.” Even if the worldview and the convictions of the CDU no longer fit Maaßen, “he should look for a new home.”
"Racial doctrine" statement: trigger for possible CDU party exclusion from Maassen
The trigger for the discussed party exclusion are the recent controversial statements by Maassen.
The former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution attracted attention again in an interview with theses that bordered on conspiracy theories.
This could possibly have finally overstepped the mark and be fatal to the CDU member.
Maassen polarized with statements about racism against white people.
Not recognizing this is "an expression of a green-red racial theory, according to which whites are regarded as an inferior race and that Arab and African men must therefore be brought into the country."
Despite criticism: Maassen wants to become chairman of the Union of Values
CDU Federal Vice Karin Prien has also called for Maassen to be expelled from the party: "If Mr. Maassen is still a member of the CDU at our next federal executive board meeting on February 13, I will submit a request to the federal executive board to exclude him from our party," said Schleswig -Holstein's Minister of Education in Kiel.
Maassen and his statements are no longer tolerable in the Union.
"His repeated use of anti-Semitic and conspiracy theory codes, his downplaying of racism and Nazi ideology and the openness he displays for right-wing extremists - all of this is incompatible with the values of the CDU," said Prien.
Maassen, on the other hand, declared on Twitter that he wanted to become chairman of the Union of Values.
He is confident that his "party friends from the CDU and CSU" will not be irritated by "this smear campaign".
(nak/dpa)
