The CDU and Hans-Georg Maaßen have long since diverged from each other in terms of content. But the ex-President for the Protection of the Constitution does not want to leave the party. A first attempt at an exclusion process failed, but now the party leadership is following up.
The CDU wants to exclude the former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen, from the party – his ideas have no place in the party, argues the presidium. A first attempt was rejected by a district party court in Thuringia, but now the party leadership is following up: In a 67-page letter of complaint, reported by the dpa news agency, it describes the decision for Maaßen to remain in the party as a “colossal misjudgment”. The exclusion of Maaßen is “politically imperative and legally permissible and necessary,” it says in the paper.
Success for Maaßen in the first instance
Maaßen showed this himself through his further behavior. “Since the oral hearing and debate, he has continued to violate the rules and principles of the CDU.” For example, Maaßen is committed to working with the AfD. He has become “politically and ideologically radicalized” and lives “in a world of thought that is typical of the AfD, not (any longer) that of the CDU.”
In July, the district party court rejected Maaßen’s exclusion from the party and advocated that he regain his membership rights. The court issued a “reprimand” against Maaßen because of a guest article in “Die Weltwoche” magazine.
Maaßen: “Party leadership has not yet understood the lesson”
Maaßen wrote to the dpa news agency upon request that the party court in Erfurt had “rejected in clear words” the request to throw him out of the party. Apparently the party leadership “still hasn’t understood its lesson and continues to try to persecute me with defamatory, malicious and stupid allegations and thus suppress necessary debates,” wrote Maaßen.
The long-time CDU member Maaßen is head of the Values Union, which is considered to be particularly conservative, but is not an organization of the party. Maaßen was also heavily criticized within his own party for several controversial statements – for example because of the claim that the thrust of the “driving forces in the political and media space” was “eliminatory racism against whites”. Maaßen had to resign 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.
Party exclusion can take a long time
The next instance in the exclusion process is the state party court in Thuringia. Party exclusion proceedings can sometimes take years. This was recently shown by the Thilo Sarrazin case. It took ten years until the SPD succeeded 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 the public discussion could constantly revolve around his person.