Maassen and the CDU: Czaja expects exclusion proceedings

Hans-Georg Maassen is accused of making racist and anti-Semitic statements. But he does not want to leave the CDU. Secretary-General Czaja expects an expulsion process to begin today.

As expected, Hans-Georg Maassen let the deadline set by his party expire. He did not resign from the CDU voluntarily and now there should be a party exclusion procedure. Maassen had recently invented what he called a “red-green racial theory” that would discriminate against white people.

The CDU should deal with his theory, Maassen demanded in one Phoenix-Interview: “I expect and demand from my party that my accusation of racism is dealt with on the left-green side.”

Maassen rejects allegations

In a page-long legal statement that ARD Capital Studio is available, he had also rejected the allegations of party-damaging behavior. He writes of a “dirty and character assassination campaign” against him.

Maassen calls the party leadership’s accusation that he made anti-Semitic and conspiracy-theory statements “absurd”. He suggests that the CDU leadership refrain from the party exclusion procedure and instead give him a warning. In his opinion, it is “illegal” that the top CDU bodies have not yet heard him.

Czaja: Don’t put National Socialism into perspective

CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja, on the other hand, accuses the former head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution of having repeatedly crossed a line with his statements, “by connecting the racial ideology of the Third Reich with today’s refugee or migration policy and with legislative projects of this federal government.”

Czaja said that one could take a critical look at the federal government’s proposals, but the terms had to remain clear and not relativize National Socialism and do so much harm to the victims again.

Exclusion procedure could be decided today

In the ARD morning magazine said Czaja today, he assumes that the top committees of his party will initiate the exclusion process against Maassen. “We will discuss it today in the federal executive board, and then I think we will decide.”

There was nothing in Maassen’s statement that was not expected anyway. The reasons for exclusion are still there.

Klein: “Clearly anti-Semitic content”

Maassen was President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution for six years. His successor in office, Thomas Haldenwang, accuses him of damaging the authority with radical, right-wing statements. The federal government’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein, sees “clearly anti-Semitic content” in Maassen’s statements.

You had to react, says Union parliamentary group leader Johann Wadephul: “When people change, you have to react to it and you can’t say just because the person had merits in the past, we’ll stick to it.”

The CDU faces a long process

The West German Maassen failed in the last federal election in Thuringia. He has no function in the CDU. But since January he has been chairman of the so-called Union of Values, a group that does not belong to the CDU. However, according to its own statements, it should have 4,000 members, most of whom should come from the CDU and CSU.

For comparison: the CDU has around 380,000 members. The East German member of the Bundestag, Sepp Müller, does not see Maaßen as an “understander” for East German conservatives either:

For historical reasons, that didn’t go down too well. The party leadership has Müller’s full support in striving for the party exclusion process.

This process is likely to take a long time because the legal hurdles are high. The SPD had employed Thilo Sarrazin’s exclusion for ten years. The CDU could now also threaten that with Maassen.