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Hans-Georg Maassen (CDU)
Photo: Martin Schutt / dpa
The former head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen, relies on reconciliation in the dispute with the CDU leadership.
"I sent my statement on the allegations made to the CDU leadership within the requested deadline on Thursday night and I hope that the content is conciliatory," said Maassen, who is a CDU member, of the "Welt am Sonntag".
"I'm not interested in a showdown with an expulsion from the party and would have liked us to settle the differences as a team, not in public."
Maassen criticized that he had not been heard verbally - "unlike how it should actually happen".
He added: “I will probably find out from the media on Monday afternoon how the party will decide.
That's not how you should treat party members.«
Maassen had drawn massive criticism in the past few weeks with various statements.
Most recently, in an interview with the author Alexander Wallasch on his platform, he stated that there is racism against white people.
Not recognizing him is "an expression of a green-red racial doctrine, according to which whites are regarded as an inferior race and one must therefore bring Arab and African men into the country."
Several prominent CDU politicians called on him to leave the party, but he let a deadline pass.
The party had asked him to comment until Thursday.
"I'm calm about the accusations"
In the event that Maassen does not comply with the request to resign, the CDU presidium had instructed the federal executive to initiate an exclusion procedure and to withdraw his membership rights with immediate effect.
The next meetings of the Presidium and Federal Executive Committee of the CDU are on Monday.
Maassen said in the interview: “I am calm about the allegations.
I am convinced that I have not harmed the party and that there has been no violation of the statutes.«
mfh/dpa