Secret meeting with AfD: CDU initiates party exclusion proceedings

A meeting of right-wing activists and extremists is making waves. A CDU member is also said to have been present. Now there is a risk of expulsion from the party.

Düsseldorf – The North Rhine-Westphalia CDU district association Oberberg has initiated party expulsion proceedings against a member. It had previously become known that the party member was said to have taken part in a conspiratorial meeting of right-wing activists and extremists in Potsdam.

At the meeting in November, the medium conducted research Corrective According to high-ranking representatives of the right-wing extremists AfD met with other right-wing actors. According to the report, it was discussed how it would be possible to expel people with foreign roots living in Germany from the country. In addition, it was discussed how people with a history of immigration could be forced to assimilate. The right-wing extremist Martin Sellner, leading head of the “Identitarian Movement”, was also there and, according to his own statements, gave lectures on the topic.

The head of the Values ​​Union of North Rhine-Westphalia was also present – as was at least one CDU party member

However, in addition to openly right-wing forces, there were also people present who always reject any connection to right-wing ideas and present themselves as moderately conservative – at least two CDU members, members of the arch-conservative Values ​​Union and a woman who is a deputy on the board of the Values ​​Union NRW and in of the Middle Class and Economic Union (MIT), but not a CDU party member. According to information from dpa she voluntarily resigned from MIT on Friday.

According to the research, the deputy federal chairwoman and North Rhine-Westphalia state head of the Union of Values, Simone Baum, was also one of the participants at the meeting. A spokesman for the Union of Values ​​confirmed when asked by the dpathat Baum is a CDU member. The district chairman of her association had already asked her whether she had taken part in the meeting. However, Baum, like him and all inquiring media, stated that she would not comment. “She is currently not aware of any party expulsion proceedings,” said the spokesman.

“Repulsive and disgusting” – According to Paul Ziemiak, there is no place for right-wing ideas in the CDU

In any case, participation will not remain without consequences for the CDU member from the Oberberg district association. The chairman of the district association, Carsten Brodesser, confirmed to the on Friday dpathat a party exclusion process has been initiated. The party member, whose name Brodesser did not want to name for party law reasons, has until the next board meeting of the state party on January 26th to comment on the incidents.

Paul Ziemiak, general secretary of the CDU North Rhine-Westphalia, described “the events described in the reports” as “repulsive and disgusting”. For the CDU regional association it is clear: “Anyone who shares or supports this is seriously violating the principles of our party.” The ideas discussed at the meeting will not be tolerated in the party. Ziemiak confirmed that “the necessary steps for a party exclusion procedure” for the member in question had been “initiated by the locally responsible district association”.

Incidents overshadow the Union's closed meeting – Friedrich Merz must now position himself clearly

The revelations about the meeting in Potsdam also overshadowed the Union's closed meeting in Heidelberg. The two-day meeting that began on Friday was actually supposed to discuss the party's basic program. But instead of abolishing citizens' money and the heating law and maintaining subsidies for farmers, other challenges are on the agenda: demarcation from the AfD and dealing with apparently right-wing extremist party members.

Criticized within the Federal Executive Board Friedrich Merz the machinations sharp. “We will not tolerate this,” said the party leader. Loud t online It has leaked from Merz's circle of acquaintances that he was shocked, both by the plans of the right-wing extremists and by the participation of his party members. CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann also announced in Heidelberg that he would react “hardly and consistently”.

For Merz, the debate comes at an inopportu
ne time. Although the CDU leader has spoken out several times against collaboration with the AfD, critics accuse him of being not sufficiently demarcated to the right. (tpn)