AfD Federal President candidate
Ex-Werte-Union chairman Max Otte donated 20,000 euros to the district association of AfD boss Chrupalla
Donated 20,000 euros to the district association of AfD boss Tino Chrupalla: Ex-Werte Union boss Max Otte
© Kay Nietfeld / DPA
The fact that Max Otte, as a CDU politician, was nominated by the AfD as a candidate for federal president caused a stir. He showed his closeness to the right-wing populist party earlier – with a generous donation. There is no connection with the nomination.
At the latest since the former chairman of the arch-conservative Values Union, Max Otte, was nominated by the AfD as a candidate for the federal presidential election, he has become persona non grata in the Union. However, Otte had clearly shown his closeness to the right-wing populist party much earlier. At the beginning of last year, he donated 20,000 euros to the AfD district association in Görlitz, Saxony.
“I wanted to support what I saw as bourgeois forces,” Otte told the German Press Agency (DPA) in Berlin on Thursday to justify the payment. He also donated 20,000 euros to the Value Union last summer. AfD boss Tino Chrupalla is a member of the Görlitz district association, from February 2017 to October 2021 he was its chairman.
Max Otte: No connection with nomination
Otte said that at the time of his donation to the AfD district association, he was a simple member of the Value Union. “The presidency was not on the agenda at the time, nor was there any other office.” The donation was duly reported. He made a donation to the Values Union in the summer after his surprising election as its chairman. Otte said he appreciates Chrupalla “as a down-to-earth and bourgeois politician”. There is no temporal or factual connection to his candidacy for the office of Federal President. Otte emphasized that he also donates a lot, for example for his church community.
After the CDU had withdrawn Otte’s membership rights and initiated an exclusion procedure because of his candidacy for an AfD ticket, the 57-year-old economist resigned the chairmanship of the Values Union last weekend. He also announced that he would withdraw from active party politics after his candidacy for the office of Federal President at the Federal Assembly on February 13. He wants to keep his membership in the Value Union and the CDU.
With the election of the Federal President without a chance
Otte has no chance of becoming President. In a joint letter to Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD), the party and faction leaders of the traffic light partners SPD, Greens and FDP as well as the leaders of the CDU and CSU proposed Frank-Walter Steinmeier for re-election. This means that he is assured of a large majority in the Federal Assembly.