updates
Order from the Secretary General
CDU examines Maassen’s party exclusion
01/24/2023, 3:45 p.m
Hans-Georg Maassen repeatedly causes outrage with right-wing populist statements. Now the CDU General Secretary is also suggesting that the former head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution leave the party voluntarily. There was “no space” for Maassen’s ideas. Now an exclusion is checked.
After several controversial statements by Hans-Georg Maassen, CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja asked the former president of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution to leave the party. The CDU is emphatically distancing itself from Maassen’s statements, Czaja tweeted. “There is no room in our party for his statements and the ideas they express. I therefore call on Mr. Maassen to resign from the CDU in Germany.” According to a party spokeswoman, Czaja commissioned “the examination of party regulation measures up to and including expulsion from the party”.
Maassen had previously claimed in a tweet that the thrust of the “driving forces in the political and media space” was “eliminatory racism against whites”. He also gave an interview to the publicist Alexander Wallasch for his blog. In this, Maassen also speaks of racism, which is “acted against the native Germans”. Frequent topics on Wallasch’s blog include a supposed suspension of the rule of law during the corona pandemic and immigration, which is considered “illegal mass immigration”.
Maassen threatens party exclusion proceedings
The Thuringian CDU also distanced itself: “Mr. Maaßen’s statements reflect neither the language nor the mentality of the CDU Thuringia. The language of anti-Semites and conspiracy ideologues has no place in our midst,” said Christian Herrgott, Secretary General of the Thuringian CDU state association. to the extent that it is a member. Therefore, he asked Maassen to leave the party promptly, he told the MDR, according to the broadcaster.
The Berlin CDU country chief Kai Wegner told the “Tagesspiegel” that Maassen had crossed another border. “Now it has to be over. Anyone who makes such statements has no place in the CDU.” Even if the worldview and the convictions of the CDU no longer fit Maaßen, “he should look for a new home.”
According to his own statements on Twitter, Maassen wants to become chairman of the Union of Values. CDU Federal Vice Karin Prien has also called for a party expulsion. “If Mr. Maassen is still a member of the CDU at our next federal executive board meeting on February 13, I will submit a request to the federal executive board to exclude him from our party,” said Schleswig-Holstein’s education minister in Kiel. Maassen and his statements are no longer tolerable in the Union.