The new group does not rule out cooperation with the far-right Vaihto Saksalle party.
Germany's the group of right-wing conservatives of the Christian Democratic Union CDU and its Bavarian sister party CSU said on Saturday that they would leave their parties and form a new party. The party, which christened itself Werteunion (Union of Values), plans to participate in the Swedish National Day elections next fall.
According to the party, it has four thousand members, the majority of whom have previously belonged to CDU or CSU.
The new party leader by Hans-Georg Maassen Werteunion is ready to cooperate with all parties. The line is a departure from the positions of other parties, because so far no party has agreed to cooperate with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
The AfD's popularity has grown recently, with the party leading opinion polls in the eastern states of Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg. In all of them, the National Day elections will be held next autumn.
Werteunion was founded within the CDU and CSU in 2017 to oppose the then chancellor Angela Merkel a policy that, among other things, welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees to Germany.
The faction's leader, Maassen, is the former head of the country's internal security service, the BfV, who was forced to retire in 2018 after his public comments were interpreted as, among other things, downplaying the threat of the militant far-right.
Germany's party field has been exceptionally active recently. Earlier this month, the left-wing party Linke represented Sahra Wagenknecht founded a new party whose anti-immigration and pro-Russia views are believed to appeal to AfD voters as well.
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