Warning instead of exclusion?
Maassen is said to have proposed a compromise to the CDU
02/11/2023, 4:10 p.m
There is a rumor in the CDU: the party leadership wants to get rid of Hans-Georg Maaßen as quickly as possible, who in turn wants to take legal action against a possible party expulsion. According to a report, the former head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is now making a proposal to his party.
According to a report, Hans-Georg Maassen, who is facing a possible CDU party expulsion, has brought a warning into play instead of an exclusion procedure. From a statement by Maassen to the CDU leadership, the Berlin daily Tagesspiegel reports that he suggests that the CDU presidium should not expel the party, but advocate a warning. He would be “in principle willing to accept this”. He called the allegations against him “unsubstantiated and partly grossly wrong”.
The goals of the union of values, of which he is chairman, are in line with the goals of the CDU, Maassen wrote in his statement to CDU Secretary General Mario Czaja. In addition, a federal party conference has never passed a decision on incompatibility, Maassen added, referring to the right-wing conservative association.
The CDU member is accused of racist and anti-Semitic statements. The party leadership around Friedrich Merz therefore wants to exclude Maassen from the CDU, among other things, because of party-damaging behavior. In a tweet, Maassen had claimed that the thrust of the “driving forces in the political and media space” was “eliminatory racism against whites”. In an interview, he also spoke of a “red-green racial theory”.
Maassen rejects allegations
According to the report, Maassen calls the accusation that he had made “statements in the language of anti-Semites and conspiracy theorists” “perfidious”. The use of an alleged secret language is not verifiable. “It may be that I use terms that are also used in these circles, but have a different meaning. Then it doesn’t happen knowingly and not intentionally,” the newspaper quoted from Maassen’s statement.
The former president of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution continued to write that he never referred to his party membership, but always as a private person. There can also be no talk of “severe damage” for the CDU. Finally, according to the report, Maassen wrote that he was available for a personal interview to explain his positions. It was important to him “to avert further damage from me and from the CDU”. The CDU presidium and board of directors will meet on Monday morning, and the Maassen case will also be discussed. Maassen has already announced that he intends to take legal action against a possible party expulsion.