As of: January 21, 2024, 12:09 p.m
By: Bettina Menzel
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The Values Union association, which is close to the CDU, is to become a party.
Could she steal votes from the AfD?
Membership numbers have recently risen sharply.
Berlin – The CDU-affiliated Values Union wants to found its own party.
The Federal Assembly decided this on Saturday (January 20) in Erfurt, according to a statement.
Hans-Georg Maaßen (CDU) was given the mandate “to initiate the founding of a conservative-liberal party under this name,” the statement continued.
Former Constitutional Law President Maaßen himself has been on the political sidelines for a long time.
Values Union party founded: Participation in state elections planned in September
The party will be founded so promptly that participation in the state elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in September will be guaranteed, according to the statement.
The Union of Values puts its membership at 4,000 on its homepage.
According to information provided by Vice Federal Chairman Hans Pistner to the
German Press Agency,
the number is currently heading towards 6,000.
After the surprising announcement that a party was being founded at the beginning of January, there were around 700 applications in one day, but each one was being examined carefully.
“We don’t want to be overrun, especially not by extremists,” it continued.
Hans-Georg Maaßen (CDU) in October 2023. © IMAGO / Funke Photo Services
In its self-image, the registered association is a “conservative grassroots movement within the CDU/CSU”.
In the Union, however, the union of values is controversial.
A party expulsion process is also underway against its chairman Hans-Georg Maaßen.
The former head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution uses “language from the milieu of anti-Semites and conspiracy ideologists, including ethnic expressions,” according to the CDU leadership’s accusation.
However, such exclusion had already failed in the past.
Last week, CDU leader Friedrich Merz announced a draft for an incompatibility resolution regarding the membership of the CDU and the Values Union association.
There is no reason to organize outside the Christian Democrats' party committees, said Merz.
Anyone who thinks otherwise should leave.
Survey: The Union of Values could have these chances in elections
Just like the Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht party, which was newly founded this year, the Union of Values could also contest votes for the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
According to the latest surveys, the AfD would get over 20 percent if there were a federal election next Sunday.
A survey by the Insa Institute on behalf of “Junge Freiheit” showed that five percent of those surveyed could “definitely” imagine voting for the Union of Values.
Ten percent said they could “somewhat” imagine it.
The potential voters are currently somewhere in between.
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Maaßen had recently no longer fundamentally ruled out collaboration with the AfD.
“We talk to everyone, from left to right.
Whether we will ever come to an agreement is a completely different question,” said the Values Union chairman in an interview with
Welt
at the beginning of January .
“The party could already run in the upcoming East German state elections and would work with all parties that support this program and that are ready for a political change in Germany,” he explained, according to the
dpa.
In 2021, Maaßen ran unsuccessfully for the Bundestag in southern Thuringia.