STORY: The CDU presidium asked ex-Verfassungsschutz President Hans-Georg Maaßen to leave the CDU. “There is no place in our party for his statements and the ideas expressed with them,” said a decision by the committee on Monday. The Presidium was unanimously of the opinion that Maassen had to leave the party. “Again and again he uses the language from the milieu of anti-Semites and conspiracy ideologues up to ethnic expressions,” said the criticism of the presidency. The party has given him a deadline of February 5 at 12 noon. If Maassen has not left the CDU by then, the Presidium will apply to initiate a party exclusion procedure against Maassen and to withdraw his membership rights with immediate effect. Maassen had repeatedly attracted attention with controversial statements. Most recently, he had the national-conservative “Werte Union” elect him as its chairman. The CDU Presidium also decided that membership in the CDU was incompatible with membership in the “Union of Values”.