Maaßen's alternative to the AfD: CDU politician wants his own party

Hans-Georg Maaßen wants to found his own party. There has been a crisis between him and the Union for a long time. An expulsion from the party has so far been unsuccessful.

Berlin – The CDU could soon face competition from its own ranks. A separate party with the same name is apparently to be created from the Values ​​Union, which is close to the party and is run by the former head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen. “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 policy change in Germany,” said Maaßen when asked by the news agency dpa.

The approximately 4,000 members of the Values ​​Union are scheduled to vote on January 20th on whether the association will be renamed “WerteUnion Förderverein e. V.” is renamed. That writes t online. The naming rights for the name “WerteUnion” would then be “permanently and irrevocably transferred to the party “WerteUnion”, whose founding was initiated by the board,” as can be seen from draft resolutions for the association’s general meeting, which are available to the news portal. According to the report, the proposals date back to a Dec. 27 board meeting. However, the board wants to obtain the consent of the club members.

CDU had criticized Maaßen – “language from the milieu of anti-Semites and conspiracy ideologists”

So far, the club says it sees itself as a “conservative grassroots movement within the CDU/CSU,” as the website shows. However, the group is highly controversial within the Union. At the beginning of last year, Hans-Georg Maaßen was supposed to be expelled from the CDU. The party leadership had, among other things, accused the 60-year-old of having a “Language from the milieu of anti-Semites and conspiracy ideologists through to ethnic expressionsto use. This was reported by, among others MDR. The then CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja found at the time that Maaßen had “clearly moved away from the basic positions of the CDU in both his choice of words and his substantive topics.”

After Maaßen did not comply with a request to voluntarily leave the party, a party expulsion procedure was initiated. The application was rejected by the CDU district party court in Thuringia in mid-July 2023. At the time, Maaßen described the decision as a “resounding slap in the face” for CDU party leader Friedrich Merz. “I hope that Mr. Merz is now better advised and does not face the next rejection in the next instance,” he said at the time Picture.

Merz said in February that the party leadership could not accept that Maaßen was accusing the CDU of taking a “left-green” and “anti-German” course. “The ideas behind it have no place in Germany’s CDU,” emphasized the party leader at the time.

“Colossal misjudgment” – Maaßen’s party exclusion process rejected for the time being

In November last year, the CDU federal executive board unanimously lodged an appeal against the district party court's decision. One is “still convinced that” Dr. Maaßen is causing serious damage to the party through his behavior and is blatantly continuing to do so,” said CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann. In a letter of complaint from the federal CDU, the court's decision was described as a “colossal misjudgment”, which Maaßen himself had shown through his behavior. However, the defendant's defense was convinced that he was “adhering to internal party regulations,” he said Mirror.

With a guest commentary in the NZZ On November 2nd, Maaßen had sparked speculation about the founding of a new party. The comment was about a possible alternative to the AfD – according to Maaßen, “the bundling of voters between the conservative part of the CDU/CSU, the union-frustrated non-voters, the FDP voters, free voters and the part of the AfD to the left of Björn Höcke stands.” This group of voters – “20 to 30 percent” of the population – has “extremely great potential and cannot be so easily discredited as ‘right-wing’,” said Maaßen.

“A strong alliance partner” for the Union – Maaßen wants to help the CDU and emulates Sarah Wagenknecht

Maaßen had also already thought about a possible coalition partner. With such a party, the Union would then “have a strong alliance partner and would not be dependent on a coalition with the Greens,” said Maaßen in the comment. However, the leadership of the CDU was visibly annoyed by the former Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution's proposals. Nevertheless, Maaßen now apparently wants to put his plan into action. Ultimately, it became clear that the CDU federal chairman Friedrich Merz and the federal executive board of the CDU “are not ready for a change in policy,” said Maaßen.

Hans-Georg Maaßen is following in Sarah Wagenknecht's footsteps. The former left-wing politician left the Die Linke party with her colleagues in mid-December last year. She had previously announced that she wanted to found a new party called “Alliance Sarah Wagenknecht” (BSW) on January 8, 2024.

In a statement from Maaßen about the BSW publis
hed on the Values ​​Union's YouTube channel, the former head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution urgently warns against Wagenknecht's new founding. The BSW is “a kind of submarine” that serves to “take away the votes of disorientated and frustrated middle-class voters in order to then feed them to the left-wing alliance.” Maaßen is now trying the same move from the right. (tpn)