Parties: Maassen: Only heard about the request to leave the media from the media

parties
Maassen: Only found out about the exit request from the media

According to his own statements, the controversial former head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen (CDU), has so far only heard from the media about the party leadership’s request to leave the party. “I haven’t received anything from the CDU so far,” Maassen said on Deutschlandfunk on Tuesday morning. “Yesterday I checked my inbox and my letterbox, also my email inbox. I didn’t get anything. And I will only respond to this request conveyed by the media to leave when I see it on my desk.” Maassen continued: “I want to see the CDU’s briefs first, I’ll check them with my lawyers, and then we’ll see.”

The CDU presidium issued an ultimatum to Maassen by Sunday to leave the party. In the past few days, he had again come under massive criticism for statements. In a tweet, he claimed that the thrust of the “driving forces in the political and media space” was “eliminatory racism against whites”. The historian and head of the Buchenwald Memorial, Jens-Christian Wagner, then accused him of “classic extreme right-wing reversal of guilt” and trivializing the Holocaust. In an interview, Maassen also spoke of a “red-green racial theory”.

The CDU has been his party so far, said Maassen. It is the party that can move Germany forward if it finds its way back to its basic program and the positions of former Chancellor Helmut Kohl. Maassen was disappointed by party chairman Friedrich Merz. This has so far not fulfilled the hope placed in him for a change in policy. This was the reason for him to take over the presidency of the Union of Values. Maassen was elected chairman of the CDU-affiliated group at the weekend.

dpa