New Werteunion party – Maassen: Filling the gap between the CDU/CSU and AfD
Published: Sunday, Feb 18th 2024, 17:20
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The Werteunion (Union of Values) around the former President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen, has founded a party and wants to attract voters to the right of the CDU/CSU. Maassen (61) was unanimously elected chairman - the party also adopted an initial program. Maassen and his supporters met on a chartered excursion boat on the Rhine near Remagen on Saturday to found the party.
According to Maassen, the Values Union is to run in the state elections in Brandenburg, Saxony and Thuringia in September, but not in the European elections in June - that would be too short notice. The Werteunion also wants to take part in next year's federal elections. According to Maassen, the aim is to bring about a "political turnaround" in Germany.
According to a dpa reporter, a few dozen people, including representatives of the Greens and the Left, demonstrated against the new party at the departure point of the ship with the representatives of the Values Union on board on Saturday.
Bonn Republic as a role model
Maassen said that they had gathered near Bonn because the Union of Values wanted to build on the Bonn Republic. "We simply want to return to the future. The future can only be tied to values if we use the values that made the old Federal Republic strong, that made the old CDU strong, as a means of overcoming the problems of today and, above all, of tomorrow," he said.
In an interview with tv.berlin broadcast on Friday evening, Maassen said that the Werteunion wanted to fill the gap between the traditional CDU/CSU, which had lost its way, and the AfD, which had become radical. The Werteunion is for freedom, the rule of law, democracy and tolerance, but also for a withdrawal of the state from life. "We want to appeal to the critical middle classes, from the conservatives to the market and national liberals, the libertarians (...) to the classic social democrats who represented the social democracy of Helmut Schmidt."
Values Union was previously only an association
The former chairman of the Werteunion association, Alexander Mitsch, the former inspector of the German Navy, Kay-Achim Schönbach, and the former CDU member of the Bundestag, Albert Weiler, were elected vice party leaders. The conservative association Werteunion, which has long been close to the CDU, set the course for the founding of the party in January at a general meeting in Erfurt by transferring the naming rights. The Maassen Party is the second prominent new party to be founded in 2024. The Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) of the former Left Party politician first formed as a party.
According to the statutes of the Werteunion published on Sunday, the new party is offering members of the CDU, CSU and FDP a "trial membership" for one year, during which the new members can keep their old party memberships. If they cancel their CDU, CSU and FDP membership and join the Werteunion, the membership fee can be waived for one year. However, the CDU and CSU had already made it clear that double membership is not possible from their point of view.
Office for the Protection of the Constitution has Maassen in its sights
The CDU executive had initiated expulsion proceedings against Maassen - Maassen then resigned from the CDU in January. Maassen was President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution from 2012 to 2018. The then Federal Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer (CSU) sent him into temporary retirement in November 2018. The reasons for this decision included Maassen's comments on the riots in Chemnitz and a speech manuscript by the then head of the agency, which referred to "radical left-wing forces in the SPD" with regard to the then coalition partner. A few days ago, it became known that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution was keeping an eye on Maassen. According to a letter published by Maassen himself, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution stored data on Maassen in the agency's information system in the area of right-wing extremism.
Several parties to the right of the Union
Several smaller parties are already courting voters in the political spectrum between the CDU/CSU and the AfD. These include the small party Bündnis Deutschland, founded in 2022, which represents conservative positions and emphasizes nationalism. The Wir Bürger party has fewer than 700 members. It includes some former AfD members who left the AfD together with Bernd Lucke in 2015 because it had become too radical for them. The party was initially called Alfa and then temporarily Liberal-Konservative Reformer (LKR).
Content overlaps with the AfD
In its founding program, the Werteunion describes itself as a "liberal-conservative party". It contains a number of statements that also exist in a similar form in the AfD's basic program. "We are in favor of dismantling the party state and expanding the rule of the people, including through the introduction of plebiscitary elements such as the referendum," says Werteunion. The AfD writes: "We want to give the people the right to vote on laws passed by parliament." The Werteunion wants children "to be protected from early sexualization and gender ideology, especially in daycare centres and schools". The AfD is calling for "no early sexualization to be allowed in nurseries, kindergartens and schools and for children to stop being made insecure about their sexual identity".
According to reports, Maassen and his fellow campaigners have held talks in recent months about possible cooperation with representatives of several right-wing conservative parties and movements, as well as with individual elected representatives. So far, however, it does not look as if a larger alliance will emerge in the near future.
©Keystone/SDA
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