analysis
Status: 01/30/2023 5:13 p.m
The case of Maßen is also a test for CDU leader Merz. It is up to him whether the party will hold a debate about its borders to the right. Maassen’s threatened exclusion from the party could be the beginning.
Nothing happened for a long time, now things should be done quickly: the party leadership has given Hans-Georg Maaßen a deadline of noon on Sunday. By then he must leave the CDU, otherwise the federal executive will initiate a party exclusion procedure. According to the unanimous decision of the CDU presidium, his ideas have no place in the CDU.
Maassen had spoken of “red-green racial theory” and “eliminatory racism against whites”. The CDU sees his statements in the vicinity of anti-Semitism and conspiracy ideologies.
The CDU leadership is thus clearly distancing itself from Maassen, who had to go as head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in 2018 because he had cast doubt on right-wing extremist riots in Chemnitz.
But the CDU is also taking a risk: It is also considered unlikely in the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus that Maaßen will really leave voluntarily. The CDU will then have to go the arduous path of a party exclusion procedure. And the case of Thilo Sarrazin shows how tedious that can be. It took ten years for the SPD to succeed in expelling him from the party. There is also concern in the CDU that Maassen, like Sarrazin, will present himself as a “martyr” and that public debate will constantly revolve around his person.
Test for Merz
Of course, the CDU prefers to talk about its principles and values. But Maassen’s threatened expulsion from the party is an important signal for this. And also a test for the party leader: Friedrich Merz always wanted, in principle, to demarcate the CDU to the right. But when it came to concrete border crossings, he sent his Secretary General ahead.
Like at the end of December: The Bautzen CDU District Administrator Udo Witschas caused outrage with controversial statements about the accommodation of refugees. It was then General Secretary Mario Czaja who criticized the party friend’s choice of words, party leader Merz remained silent. He has also not heard anything publicly about various contacts between the AfD and the CDU at district level.
The problem is more than just measure
Czaja also commented on Maaßen: He accused the former constitutional protection officer of repeatedly aligning himself with the AfD and asked him to leave the party. Only on Sunday did Merz say in the “Bild” newspaper: “The measure is full.” Maassen had just been elected chairman of the Union of Values. And that is just one expression of the problem of why the Maaßen cause is so delicate for the CDU.
Because Maaßen certainly has his supporters in the CDU – for example in his Thuringian district association Schmalkalden-Meiningen, which put him up as a direct candidate for the federal elections in 2021 and even now does not see the requirements for a party exclusion being met.
And he also finds connection with the right-wing conservative union of values, which Maassen has now chaired. Although this association is not an official party organization, it consists largely – according to its own statements of 85 percent – of CDU and CSU members. And they elected Maaßen to be the head of the club with a large majority.
With an estimated 4,000 members, the Union of Values is not a heavyweight in terms of numbers, even if it sees itself as a grassroots movement in the Union. But it shows that at least part of the Union is open to Maassen and his right-wing, partly conspiracy-ideological positions and his anti-Semitic and ethnic language.
The CDU must always talk about its limits
Does the CDU want that? The party must deal with this fundamental question at least as urgently as with the individual Maassen. The CDU leadership has only made a start. In her executive committee decision, she not only calls on Maassen to leave the party, but also all CDU members to leave the union of values. The party leadership does not see them in line with the values of the CDU. At the latest since Maassen was elected chairman, each of their members has had to ask themselves where their political home is.
Several party members are calling for an incompatibility decision as for the AfD and the left. Then anyone who is a member of the Union of Values should no longer be in the CDU. However, this requires a decision at a federal party conference. Whether the party has the courage to conduct this thorough debate about its own values and the demarcation to the right remains to be seen. But she might need clarity if she wants to successfully rule out Maaßen and reliably draw her boundaries in the future.