The CDU top has never been happy that the former head of the constitutional protection is running as a direct candidate in Thuringia. After his recent cross shots, the anger in the party is great. Not everywhere, however.
Despite the widespread outrage over Hans-Georg Maaßen, the CDU in southern Thuringia sees no reason to question the former head of the constitution protection office. The chairman of the CDU district association Hildburghausen, Christopher Other, defended Maassen’s statements in the MDR, who had assumed that journalists of the public broadcasting company had a “clear left-wing spin” and demanded that their personal suitability be checked.
From his point of view, it is at least legitimate for a Bundestag candidate to comment on “any issues”, said Other to the news radio MDR Aktuell. The core message of Maassen is an indication “that there is an obligation to provide information in public broadcasting, which should be based on neutral reporting and see its main point there”. Of course, Maaßen had a place in the CDU: He was “an undisputed democrat because anyone who was allowed to lead the protection of the constitution for these six years (…) has been screened and has absolutely no tendency to somehow drift away from the democratic spectrum.”
Maaßen accuses the public service media of tendentious reporting
At the end of April, the South Thuringian CDU had Maaßen set up as a direct candidate for constituency 196 – with 37 of 43 votes. He had once again triggered great outrage at the weekend by accusing the public service media of tendentious reporting. On Sunday evening Maaßen emphasized on Twitter that freedom of the press and broadcasting freedom in Germany had constitutional status, but on Monday he again called for constitutional loyalty: “It has been known for years that there are journalists who had and possibly still have ties to the Antifa,” he said the dpa. Such a suspicion must be dispelled.
Long-time CDU member of the Bundestag, Ruprecht Polenz, called for the former top official to be excluded from the party on Monday, which is viewed with skepticism among the CDU leadership, especially since there are high hurdles for such an exclusion process.
Uwe Schummer: “Mr Maassen’s candidacy is damaging the Union”
The chairman of the workers’ wing of the CDU and CSU in the Bundestag, Uwe Schummer, called on the Thuringian district associations to distance themselves from Maassen’s candidacy. “Mr Maassen’s candidacy is damaging the Union. With his unreflective statements, every interview is like a rolling cannonball on a ship’s deck,” he told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “My appeal to the responsible district associations: Take away his confidence in the candidacy. Better not a candidate than a bad candidate.”
The North Rhine-Westphalian European Parliamentarian Dennis Radtke (CDU) called on Maaßen to quit the party himself. “When Mr. Maassen feels a last remnant of ties to the CDU, he should give up his candidacy and leave the party,” said Radtke the Funke newspapers. “Perhaps one should have subjected Mr. Maassen to a character test before he was set up – then we would have been spared a lot.”
The head of the Junge Union, Tilman Kuban, warned against overestimating measures. “He has no function in the federal party and is a single constituency candidate of 299 in Germany,” said the CDU politician to the editorial network Germany. CDU Vice Julia Klöckner told the “Rheinische Post”: “Our relationship as the CDU to public broadcasting is clear: neither tests of opinion nor exertion of influence are compatible with freedom of the press.”
Left parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch accused Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet of not distancing himself sufficiently from measures. “The fact that Armin Laschet would apparently let himself be elected Chancellor by a Member of Parliament Maaßen is simply shameful.”
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