Berlin.
The CDU reacts to Maassen’s failures – finally, one has to say. But the demarcation problem of the party is not yet solved.
Hans Georg Maassen has long sought the limit of what one can say in the CDU, but now he has found it: it lies somewhere before the fables of “green-red racial theory” and “eliminatory racism against whites”.
That the CDU has decided, if he doesn’t go himself first, is overdue. Then measure knows very well that it is above all his membership in the CDU that has given him the much-needed attention. Were it not for the tension between the party’s position and his apparent flirtation with the far-right, the 60-year-old would be just another alumna spreading increasingly crude theories from the sidelines. As a member of the CDU, however, he can be sure of headlines and the unwilling interest of the federal party.
Even if the hurdles for a successful party expulsion are high, the signal of the test is therefore important.
Also read: CDU: Maassen before being thrown out – the Bureau calls for resignation
Maassen’s expulsion must be the start of a process
It should be in Adenauer house however, no one believes that the demarcation is sufficient. Maassen is only a symptom, not the cause of the problem that the CDU has in many parts of the party in the east.
Despite all the assurances of the party leadership, it happens again and again at the local level that CDU politicians vote together with the AfD, for example before Christmas in Bautzen when benefits for asylum seekers were at stake. The “crystal clear announcement” that CDU leader Friedrich Merz made in this regard after his election is repeatedly ignored. A real fire should not be expected of the much invoked fire wall of demarcation to the outside right, as full of holes as it currently is.
For the party, Maassen’s expulsion must therefore be the start, not the end, of a new dispute.
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