“We will take tough action”
Linnemann threatens party members after extremist meetings
January 11, 2024, 8:35 p.m
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A meeting in Potsdam 2023 is making waves. AfD members, right-wing extremists and also CDU politicians are there. Secretary General Linnemann is threatening the latter with harsh consequences. The CDU social wing makes a completely different demand.
CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann has threatened party colleagues with “harsh action” if they took part in the secret meeting in Potsdam with AfD politicians and right-wing extremists. Plans to expel millions of people from Germany were presented there. “According to media reports, members of the so-called Values Union also took part in the meeting,” Linnemann told “Welt”. “We say very clearly: There is no place for such ideas in our party. We will examine the consequences and take tough action.”
According to research by the Correctiv research network that became known on Wednesday, AfD politicians, neo-Nazis and entrepreneurs met in November 2023 in a hotel near Potsdam to discuss the expulsion of millions of people with an immigrant background from Germany. The entrepreneur Hans Christian Limmer and the right-wing extremist Gernot Mörig are said to have invited people. According to the research, two North Rhine-Westphalian representatives of the CDU-affiliated Values Union also accepted the invitation. Both are also said to be party members.
Linnemann reacted angrily to the reports. He told “Welt” that the more information that comes to light about the AfD’s meeting with right-wing extremist thinkers, the more “shocking” the findings are. “These deportations, including of German citizens, which are de facto being discussed here, are inhumane, forgetful of history and simply disgusting,” said the CDU politician. They showed “what spirit lives in the ranks of the AfD and how far this party is distancing itself from the foundation of the Basic Law and from our legal and value system.”
The deputy head of the CDU employee wing CDA, Dennis Radtke, pointed out in the “Welt” that the social wing had long ago made an incompatibility decision with regard to the values union. The CDU should “follow suit” here, demanded Radtke. “People who clearly see themselves as a link to the AfD have no place in the CDU,” he explained.