Party - CDU leadership: complaint against Maaßen remaining in the party
The CDU leadership has lodged a complaint against the retention of the former President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen, in the party. Maassen's exclusion is "politically imperative and legally permissible and necessary", according to a 67-page letter of complaint, which was made available to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
Milder means were legally and politically insufficient. The letter is dated November 9. "Der Spiegel" had previously reported.
Rejected exclusion was a "colossal miscalculation"
CDU Secretary General Carsten Linnemann had announced at the beginning of November that he intended to lodge an appeal against the decision of a district party court in Thuringia. In July, the district party court responsible in the first instance rejected Maaßen's expulsion from the party and ruled that he should have his membership rights restored. The court issued a "reprimand" against Maaßen.
In the letter of appeal from the federal CDU, this is described as a "colossal misjudgement". Maaßen has shown this himself through his further behavior. "Since the hearing and debate, he has continued to violate the rules and principles of the CDU."
For example, Maaßen advocated cooperation with the AfD. He has become "politically and ideologically radicalized" and lives "in a world of thought that is typical of the AfD, not (any longer) in that of the CDU".
Maaßen wrote to the German Press Agency on request that the party court in Erfurt had "rejected in no uncertain terms" the motion to expel him from the party. "Obviously, the party leadership has still not understood its lesson and continues to try to persecute me with malicious, malicious and stupid insinuations and thus suppress necessary debates," Maaßen wrote. She has so far rejected every offer of talks.
Who is Maaßen?
Maaßen, a long-time CDU member, is the head of the Werte-Union, which is considered particularly conservative but is not a party organization. He stood as a candidate in a constituency in southern Thuringia in the 2021 Bundestag elections, but was unsuccessful.
Maaßen had also come under heavy criticism in his own party for several controversial statements - for example, for claiming that the "driving forces in the political media" were "eliminatory racism against whites".
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Source: www.stern.de
