The CDU federal executive committee wants to exclude the former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen, from the CDU despite a contrary decision by the initially responsible local party court level. General Secretary Carsten Linnemann said on Monday that they were “still convinced that Dr. Maaßen is causing serious damage to the party through his behavior and is continuing to do so in a blatant manner.” That is “the opinion of the entire CDU federal executive board”. The board therefore decided unanimously to lodge a complaint against the decision of the CDU Thuringia’s Joint District Party Court.
Maaßen was President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution from 2012 to 2018. In the 2021 federal election, he ran as a CDU direct candidate in a Thuringian constituency, but was defeated by his Social Democratic opponent. Maaßen is currently chairman of the ultra-conservative “Values Union”. This union is not a subdivision of the CDU, but an association – but many members are also members of the CDU.
Now it is the Thuringian state party court’s turn
The CDU presidium had already asked Maaßen to leave the party on his own initiative on January 30th. The former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution repeatedly used “language from the milieu of anti-Semites and conspiracy ideologists, including ethnic expressions,” the Presidium explained at the time. But Maaßen did not comply with the request. The CDU federal executive committee therefore opened a party exclusion process. In July, the district party court issued a “reprimand” against Maaßen, but rejected his expulsion from the CDU. The federal CDU then announced that it would examine this decision.
Four months later, she has now decided to continue the proceedings – the next instance is now the Thuringian State Party Court. When asked on Monday when a decision could be expected, Secretary General Linnemann simply said: “You can never say exactly.”
Maaßen had complained about a “green-red racial theory”.
Among other things, Maaßen had claimed in a tweet that the thrust of the “driving forces in the political-media space” was “eliminatory racism against whites” and “the burning desire” that “Germany would perish.” He also gave the publicist Alexander Wallasch an interview for his blog. In this, Maaßen speaks of racism that is “practiced against the local Germans”. And he criticizes an allegedly existing “green-red racial theory, according to which whites are viewed as an inferior race and therefore Arab and African men must be brought into the country.”
Recently there was also speculation that Maaßen could be interested in a new party, as well as a Guest commentary by Maaßen in the New Zurich newspaper caused anger in the CDU leadership. In the newspaper, Maaßen had written about a possible alternative to the AfD – that would be “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 has “extremely great potential and cannot be so easily discredited as ‘right-wing’.” Demographically, we’re talking about “20 to 30 percent here, which could give real weight to a new middle-class conservative party,” writes Maaßen. “The Union would then have a strong alliance partner and would not be dependent on a coalition with the Greens.”