Founding your own party
“The CDU is brain dead” – Ex-President for the Protection of the Constitution Maaßen wants to leave the party
There is too much “red-green” in the CDU,” says Hans-Georg Maaßen
© Martin Schutt / DPA
Hans-Georg Maaßen has now officially announced that he is leaving the CDU. The move had long been expected. The relationship between the former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the party has long been broken.
The former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen, says he wants to leave the CDU leave. The Thuringian politician announced on Thursday on Platform X that he had decided to end his membership in the CDU. Maaßen confirmed his plans to the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung”. “When a horse is dead, you have to unsaddle – and the CDU is not only heart-dead, but now also brain-dead,” he told the newspaper.
“The CDU has given up its values and basic beliefs in recent years,” said Maaßen, explaining his decision to leave the CDU. “It only gives the impression of being a bourgeois alternative to red-green, but is ultimately just its variant. The #MerzUnion can no longer be reformed,” wrote Maaßen on X. He also posted a picture with a cut up CDU sign.
Party exclusion proceedings against Hans-Georg Maaßen are ongoing
Most recently, Maaßen set the course for the founding of his own party with the ultra-conservative Values Union. In contrast to the CDU, it should be “ready to talk in all political directions”; the AfD is not explicitly excluded. The Union of Values is not a party division of the CDU, but had sought proximity to it for a long time. Last weekend, the association formally decided to transfer the naming rights to the Values Union to the planned party. Federal Chairman Maaßen was given the mandate to “initiate the founding of a conservative-liberal party under this name,” explained the Union of Values.
Maaßen spoke of breaking away from the CDU/CSU union of values. “It has been opposed by the party establishment since its founding in 2017,” he explained. The 61-year-old has been in an ongoing conflict with the CDU leadership for a long time – they accuse him, among other things, of using “language from the milieu of anti-Semites and conspiracy ideologists, including ethnic expressions” – a party expulsion process has been ongoing against the lawyer and former top official since 2023.
Union of values would be the second party founded in 2024
A Maaßen party would be the second prominent new foundation in 2024. At the beginning of the year, the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance of the former left-wing politician had already been founded as a party. Both formations also aim to steal votes from the AfD. Maaßen wants to place his party between the CDU and AfD; he sees a gap there. However, the Free Voters are also still active on the site.
At the beginning of January, Maaßen surprisingly announced the founding of the party. In doing so, he attracted nationwide attention – now the CDU seems almost relieved – also with a view to the exclusion process: Anyone who becomes a member of the planned party of the conservative union of values cannot stay in the CDU, a CDU spokesman confirmed on Sunday. The party statutes exclude dual memberships. “CDU members who continue to belong to the so-called Union of Values must leave the CDU or face exclusion proceedings,” said the spokesman. CSU General Secretary Martin Huber made similar comments.