It’s official: Max Otte (57) is no longer a member of the CDU. The CDU district party court in Cologne followed the request of the federal executive “because of party-damaging behavior”, the CDU Cologne said on Wednesday.
︎ Since Otte did not raise an objection by the end of the period on August 1st, he is “now legally no longer a member of the CDU”.
Background to the party’s expulsion: Otte had been nominated by the AfD as a candidate for election to the Federal President – and had accepted the nomination despite heavy criticism from the Union.
Otte was a member of the CDU for a good 30 years. As early as April, he had announced during the ongoing proceedings that he would not oppose being thrown out. He had already resigned from the chair of the arch-conservative Union of Values at the end of January.
In the meantime, there were already signs of a party exclusion war: In January, Otte initially did not want to put up with the party exclusion and shot back against the CDU. His lawyer even asked the CDU to withdraw the party exclusion itself.
The Cologne CDU welcomed the decision of the district party court on Wednesday: It very clearly affirmed “that any type of cooperation with the AfD violates the principles of the CDU and has consequences under party law”.
(dpa, lvo)