He wants to run for the AfD as Federal President, but is in the CDU: The party leadership has therefore asked Max Otte to leave – and is also considering an exclusion process.
The head of the arch-conservative “Werte-Union”, Max Otte, wants to run for the AfD for the office of Federal President – and thus draws the anger of his party, the CDU, on himself. The Cologne CDU – Ottes district association – wants to initiate party exclusion proceedings against him. The district association decided that together with the state association and the federal party, said the spokeswoman for the Cologne CDU. NRW Prime Minister and CDU state leader Hendrik Wüst had previously asked Otte to leave the CDU. In the “Rheinische Post” Wüst announced an exclusion procedure should Otte run for the AfD for the office of Federal President.
The CDU leadership also asked Otte to leave the party. Anyone who considers something like this as a Christian Democrat “is violating the values of the CDU and has no place in our party,” said Secretary General Paul Ziemiak. “We also expressly call on Dr. Otte to leave the CDU.” At 6 p.m., the federal executive board will discuss the further procedure, the new general secretary announced Mario Czaja but who is not yet in office.
“No more place in our party”
The still incumbent CDU leader Armin Laschet and his successor Friedrich Merz spoke out in favor of the rapid initiation of party exclusion proceedings. “There is a very hard and clear cut,” said Merz in an online meeting of the Union faction in the Bundestag on Tuesday, according to participants. Otte is a man who has long distanced himself from the Union. “Tonight we will show him that we act very quickly and very clearly,” said Merz.
Union faction leader Ralph Brinkhaus sharply criticized Otte. The Union candidate is incumbent Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said the CDU politician. “And anyone running against our candidate no longer has a place in our party. It’s as simple as that.” The parliamentary manager of the parliamentary group, Thorsten Frei, also believes that a procedure for exclusion is inevitable.
Otte defends AfD nomination
Saarland Prime Minister and CDU leader Tobias Hans made a similar statement. It is “completely strange when a member of the CDU sees the candidacy for another party as an honor and that for a party that is partly considered anti-constitutional”. If Otte does not come up with the idea himself, the CDU must help and exclude him. “I don’t see any other way. We lose our credibility if we tolerate something like that.”
Otte himself rejected the demand to leave the party. “There are no reasons for me to think about leaving,” Otte told the newspaper “Die Welt”. He described the AfD’s nomination, which he officially accepted on Tuesday, as a great honor. In the presence of AfD boss and co-head of parliamentary group Tino Chrupalla and co-head of parliamentary group Alice Weidel, he defended his candidacy against criticism. “I don’t see it as a provocation. I’m serious,” he said. The office and the candidacy are above the parties.
Max Otte (middle) with the AfD politicians Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla: The candidacy is above the parties, Otte defended his step. (Source: Kay Nietfeld/dpa)
AfD boss: “Good day for democracy”
He sees the candidacy as an opportunity to fill in ditches. “If you are proposed for the highest state office, which is above the parties, that is not cooperation in my eyes. It is an individual decision whether I accept this proposal or not,” Otte continued. Chrupalla spoke of a “good day for democracy”. You want to come up with an alternative. Chrupalla called Otte an “honorable politician”. Weidel said that Max Otte was a venerable candidate for the Federal President.
The Union, together with the governing parties SPD, Greens and FDP, had previously expressed their support for Frank-Walter Steinmeier’s second term in a joint letter. They will jointly propose this for election by the Federal Assembly on February 13, according to the letter to Bundestag President Bärbel Bas. A declaration of consent from Steinmeier was attached. The parties involved had previously expressed their support for Steinmeier. This means that he has a broad majority in the Federal Assembly.