Owner of the Potsdam Villa
CDU wants to throw hosts of right-wing extremist meeting out of the party
February 6, 2024, 3:52 p.m
Last November, right-wing extremists, members of the AfD and Values Union, but also CDU politicians met in Potsdam to talk about “remigration”. CDU member Wilhelm Wilderink provides the premises for this – and takes part in the meeting himself. Now he is threatened with expulsion from the party.
As a consequence of the meeting of radical right-wingers in a villa in Potsdam, the CDU Potsdam has initiated proceedings for the possible exclusion of the property owner from the party. Wilhelm Wilderink is the owner of the guesthouse on Lehnitzsee where the meeting took place and a member of the Potsdam CDU district executive committee.
The board had given Wilderink until Monday to voluntarily resign from the CDU. “So far we have not received a letter of resignation from Wilhelm Wilderink,” says the CDU district association. “That is why the decision made last week to prepare an exclusion procedure will be implemented.” Wilderink has not yet commented on this when asked.
According to the district chairman of the CDU Potsdam, Steeven Bretz, Wilderink admitted to being at the meeting. The CDU sees this as violating its principles. The CDU Potsdam declared last week that the executive district executive committee, in coordination with the federal and state associations, would initiate a party expulsion process in accordance with paragraph 11 of the statutes of the CDU in Germany if the district executive committee did not receive a declaration of resignation by February 5th. The CDU Brandenburg Joint District Party Court is responsible for this.
The background is a report by the media company Correctiv about a meeting of right-wing extremists on November 25th in Potsdam, which was also attended by AfD politicians and individual members of the CDU and the very conservative Union of Values. Because of taking part in the meeting, the CDU also wants to exclude a North Rhine-Westphalian party member, the deputy federal chairwoman and North Rhine-Westphalia state leader of the Union of Values, Simone Baum.
The former head of the Identitarian Movement in Austria, Martin Sellner, confirmed that he spoke about “remigration” at the meeting in Potsdam. When right-wing extremists use this term, they usually mean that large numbers of people of foreign origin should leave the country – even under duress.