Thomas Haldenwang: Will the ex-constitutional protector become a CDU candidate?

The CDU is once again in trouble with an ex-president from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. No, Thomas Haldenwang is not prone to excessive right-wing spin. But his planned candidacy for the Bundestag got off to a rocky start. The announcement that he would run for the Bundestag after 15 years in the Federal Office, including six as President, caused a stir and criticism nationwide. Even within the party. And so Haldenwang now has to face a vote in the local CDU in Wuppertal on Saturday.

The ex-secret service chief has an opposing candidate: the previously little-known deputy district chairwoman Derya Altunok. On Saturday, the members of the CDU in Wuppertal will decide who will be their candidate for the Wuppertal I constituency: Haldenwang or Altunok.

But what happened to the conservatives in Wuppertal? Initially, the CDU Wuppertal encouraged its deputy district chairwoman Derya Altunok to run as a candidate for the Bundestag. The 35-year-old, who has only been active in the CDU since the end of 2022, is a new face and embodies a younger, more feminine alternative to the SPD candidate Helge Lindh, who wants to defend his direct mandate in Wuppertal.

But then came the ex-intelligence agent Thomas Haldenwang. The 64-year-old was born in Wuppertal and is known far beyond Wuppertal as the former head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. Is he the better candidate? His party friends were convinced of this. “Derya Altunok offered a compromise: she should give up her candidacy and instead take over the chairmanship of the local women’s union. A small career step instead of the big chance for the Bundestag.

Altunok agreed, and on November 14th the district executive committee, of which she herself is a member, unanimously proposed Thomas Haldenwang as a direct candidate for the Wuppertal I constituency. But Altunok changed her mind. Feedback from local party friends, but also from Berlin, convinced them to want to run. The CDU Bundestag member Serap Güler, after all a member of the federal executive board, is said to be one of her supporters. The result: a vote at the meeting on Saturday, in which the CDU Wuppertal nominates its Bundestag candidates. The outcome: completely uncertain.

The announced candidacy of the former head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has attracted national attention and criticism since it was announced. The main point is that a former President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, who observed the AfD, is now entering politics himself. According to critics, this could give the impression that the secret service is an instrument to disadvantage political competitors. AfD leader Alice Weidel directly accuses Haldenwang of having used the secret service for political purposes.

Of course, Thomas Haldenwang sees it completely differently. In an interview with the “taz” He explains that his candidacy does not represent any damage to the reputation of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The damage occurs “now through the reporting”there “many people about the AfD’s stick” jump. He resigned as President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution before he was even officially nominated: “This shows that there was and is no conflict of interests.”

In conversation with the “World” the 64-year-old adds: “I have the impression that a President of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is being denied his constitutional right to run for office in the Bundestag.” The fact that critics believe that he, who campaigned for the free-democratic basic order, should not run for the Bundestag is a fact “strange understanding of democracy”. His original plan was to retire at the end of 2024 and run on the regular election date in September 2025, “So there would have been a certain time gap.”

Despite all the criticism, Haldenwang is sticking to his candidacy application. But even if he runs as a CDU candidate, his chances of winning the election would be uncertain. The incumbent SPD MP Helge Lindh has already won the constituency twice. Haldenwang’s popularity could help him, but the historic election results speak against a CDU victory in the Wuppertal I constituency. No CDU candidate has won here since 1961.