extremism
CDU Potsdam: Party exclusion process for villa owners
View of the guesthouse at Lehnitzsee: A meeting of radical right-wingers had taken place there. photo
© Jens Kalaene/dpa
An exclusion procedure is the sharpest sword against party members: After the meeting of radical right-wingers in Potsdam, the CDU district association took this action against the landlord of the property.
The board gave Wilderink until yesterday to voluntarily resign from the CDU. “So far we have not received a letter of resignation from Wilhelm Wilderink,” said the CDU district association today in response to a request from the German Press Agency. “That is why the decision made last week to prepare an exclusion procedure will be implemented.”
Wilderink told “Welt” that he was calm about the proceedings. “I can’t see any behavior that is legally or politically damaging to the party.”
Correctiv revelations as a trigger
According to the district chairman of the CDU Potsdam, Steeven Bretz, Wilderink admitted to being at the meeting. The CDU sees this as violating its principles.
The CDU Potsdam declared last week that the executive district executive committee, in coordination with the federal and state associations, would initiate a party expulsion process in accordance with paragraph 11 of the statutes of the CDU in Germany if the district executive committee did not receive a declaration of resignation by February 5th. The CDU Brandenburg Joint District Party Court is responsible for this.
The background is a report by the media company Correctiv about a meeting of radical right-wingers on November 25th in Potsdam, in which AfD politicians as well as individual members of the CDU and the very conservative Values Union also took part. Because of taking part in the meeting, the CDU also wants to exclude a North Rhine-Westphalian party member, the deputy federal chairwoman and North Rhine-Westphalia state leader of the Union of Values, Simone Baum.
The former head of the Identitarian Movement in Austria, Martin Sellner, confirmed that he spoke about “remigration” at the meeting in Potsdam. When right-wing extremists use this term, they usually mean that large numbers of people of foreign origin should leave the country – even under duress.