CDU member
After the federal presidential candidacy for AfD: Max Otte withdraws from politics
Max Otte, still a member of the CDU, ran for the AfD for the office of Federal President
© Florian Gaertner/ / Picture Alliance
Because of his candidacy for the office of Federal President for the AfD, the CDU leader has withdrawn Values Union boss Otte’s membership rights. Now the economist is taking the consequences himself and is letting his offices rest.
In a way, his candidacy for the office of Federal President was also a withdrawal with an announcement. Because the fact that Max Otte, CDU member and chairman of the arch-conservative Values Union, would move into Bellevue Palace on an AfD ticket of all things was a plan that was doomed to fail from the start. So now the 57-year-old is taking the consequences and saying goodbye to active politics.
“What should come after a candidacy?”
“The office of Federal President or the candidacy is above the parties and at the end of a political career. What should come after that?” Said the economist of the DPA news agency. “So this candidacy also means my departure from the party-political stage.” He is also resigning from the chairmanship of the Values Union with immediate effect, said Otte. He wants to keep his membership in the association.
The CDU leadership had withdrawn the 57-year-old’s membership rights with immediate effect because of his candidacy for the AfD and initiated a procedure for his exclusion from the party. Party General Secretary Paul Ziemiak justified the procedure by saying that it was an “urgent and serious case of behavior that is seriously damaging to the party” that requires immediate intervention.
However, Otte categorically ruled out a move to another party. He was a scholarship holder of the CDU-affiliated Konrad Adenauer Foundation and has been a CDU member since 1991. At the end of the 1970s, as a teenager, he supported his father, who also belonged to the CDU, in the election campaign. “The CDU is my political home. I will fight to stay in this home,” he said.
The fund manager ruled out accepting a paid mandate in politics in the future. “I will not seek a Bundestag mandate or any other mandate.” He was often asked if he was aiming for a seat in the Bundestag and always declined. “After this candidacy for the office of Federal President, a return to party politics is no longer possible,” emphasized Otte. He was repeatedly accused of being close to the AfD. Until January 2021 he was chairman of the board of trustees of the AfD-affiliated Desiderius Erasmus Foundation.
“Serious case of party-damaging behavior”: CDU cold Max Otte
Otte accepts AfD nomination for presidential candidacy
The Union of Values, which claims to have around 4,000 members, sees itself as representing the particularly conservative current in the Union, but is not an official party organization.
Steinmeier bipartisan candidate
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 Steinmeier for re-election. This means that he is assured of a large majority in the Federal Assembly on February 13th.