The union of values should become a party. The club’s chairman, ex-President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution Maaßen, should initiate “the founding of a conservative-liberal party”. There will be no “firewall”.
The conservative Union of Values has cleared the way for the founding of a party planned by its boss, Hans-Georg Maaßen. According to their spokesman in Erfurt, a majority of the members of the association, which previously said it was close to the CDU, voted to transfer the naming rights to the Values Union to the planned party.
Maaßen was given the mandate “to initiate the establishment of a conservative-liberal party under this name,” it said in a statement. “The members of the Value Union eV voted by a large majority to found a party of the same name,” said the club’s chairman and former head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maaßen. We will work with all parties that are ready for a “political change in Germany”.
In contrast to the CDU, the newly founded party should not be a party with a “firewall” and therefore “ready to talk in all political directions,” said the Union of Values. The AfD is not explicitly excluded.
Participation in state elections in the fall
The Union of Values explained that the party will be founded so promptly that participation in the state elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg in September will be guaranteed. The general meeting, which, according to a spokesman, several hundred members of the Union of Values came to Erfurt, was held behind closed doors. According to its own information, the association has 4,000 members – a majority of whom have previously belonged to the CDU and, in some cases, the CSU.
A Maaßen party would be the second prominent new foundation in 2024. At the beginning of the year, the Sahra Wagenknecht alliance of the former left-wing politician had already been founded as a party.
The Union of Values is not an official party division of the CDU or CSU. Maaßen announced the founding of the party and, according to him, a move away from the CDU/CSU at the beginning of January. He attracted nationwide attention. The CDU has been expelling the ex-President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution since last year.
Merz demarcates the CDU from the Union of Values
CDU leader Friedrich Merz had already announced that the CDU wanted to burn bridges to the union of values. He pointed out that simultaneous membership in the CDU, which had previously been very common there, was no longer possible under the current rules after the founding of a “Union of Values” party. If the party had not been founded, Merz would have wanted to apply for an incompatibility decision with the union of values. In this case, CDU members could no longer be members of the Union of Values.
The right-wing conservative values union was founded in 2017. It saw itself as a gathering place for CDU and CSU members who found the course of then CDU leader Angela Merkel not conservative enough. According to research by the Correctiv network, two members of the Union of Values were present at the meeting with right-wing extremists in Potsdam in November, where plans for the mass expulsion of people with a migrant background and their supporters were discussed.