The former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen, has been elected Chairman of the right-wing conservative Union of Values. The group announced this on Twitter. As chairman, he wants to “work for the implementation of Christian-democratic goals, for conservative and liberal values and against any kind of eco-socialism and gender wokism,” explained Maassen on Twitter before the election.
The CDU, which is examining a party exclusion procedure against him, accused Maassen of a “shabby dirt campaign” against him. In recent years, Maassen has repeatedly caused a stir and caused trouble in the CDU with right-wing populist statements – most recently with statements that were criticized as racist.
The Union of Values, founded in 2017, sees itself as a group of conservative Christian Democrats. She argues that the CDU, under the then party leader Angela Merkel, had shifted too far to the left and had to take more conservative positions again. It operates as a registered association and is not one of the official party organizations. The federal CDU is a thorn in the side of the union of values because of their criticism of the official party course.
The group says it has around 4,000 members. In the past two years it has been marked by internal disputes. In 2021, the AfD-affiliated economist Max Otte was surprisingly elected to succeed founding chairman Alexander Mitsch. Otte had to give up the presidency after running as a candidate for the AfD for the office of Federal President last year.
Founding chairman Mitsch told the AFP news agency that he believed Maassen could “put the union of values back on the right course after the Otte disaster and exert a constructive political influence”. The CDU must change “to correct the disastrous policy of the Merkel era and the ‘traffic light’,” said Mitsch.
On Tuesday, the federal CDU announced that it was examining party exclusion proceedings against Maassen. Party leader Friedrich Merz had previously criticized Maassen’s statements as “unacceptable”.
The reason for the criticism was an interview by Maassen with a right-wing populist internet portal. “According to green-red racial theory, whites are an inferior race,” he claimed there, among other things. He blamed “politicians and attitude journalists” for “racism practiced against the native Germans”.
Maassen was President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution from 2012 to 2018. He had to vacate the post after questioning right-wing extremist riots in Chemnitz. In 2021 he failed in the federal elections as a direct candidate for the CDU in Thuringia.
