An Sunday noon, the former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen, let a deadline expire for his party to leave the CDU. According to the Executive Committee, his membership rights should be withdrawn “with immediate effect”. Within a party exclusion procedure, Maassen should have until Thursday to comment in writing on the allegations.
The deputy federal chairwoman of the CDU, Karin Prien, told the FAZ: “Unsurprisingly for me, he did not take the opportunity to take responsibility and avert further damage to the CDU. Now the exclusion procedure is unavoidable and the executive committee’s decision takes effect. The federal board will deal with the case at its next meeting and make a decision. Now it’s about a formal legal process.
The CDU will also deal with the so-called union of values on February 13.”
Maassen was elected the new chairman of the Union of Values last week. According to its own statements, it has 4,000 members, 85 percent of whom should come from the CDU and CSU. The party presidium distanced itself “emphatically” from Maassen on Monday. The party leadership accused him of repeatedly using “the language from the milieu of anti-Semites and conspiracy ideologues up to ethnic expressions”.
Maassen has been causing a stir with right-wing populist statements for several years. Most recently, in an interview with a right-wing populist Internet portal, he claimed that “according to green-red racial theory” whites are “an inferior race”.
From 2012 to 2018 Maassen was President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. He had to leave the post after questioning right-wing extremist riots in Chemnitz
