The political pendulum is Germany swinging rapidly to the right, with the once stable spectrum of parties splitting into a more fractured set of offerings.
Now this appears to be another option on the right, after members of the Union of Values, an ultra-conservative wing of the Christian Democratic Union, decided on Saturday, at a meeting in Erfurt, to establish themselves as a right-wing party. New party.
Reuters reported:
In a closed party meeting in the city of Erfurt, the members of the group granted President Hans-Georg Maassen a mandate by a large majority to begin establishing a “liberal conservative” party, according to a statement issued by the group. Masen is a former Homeland Security official who is popular with anti-immigration voters.
The party is set to be established quickly so it can take part in state elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Mecklenburg-West Pomerania in September. This step could take place next February, according to sources familiar with the matter.
With the creation of new parties, the political scene in Germany faces the risk of further division after the formation of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party 11 years ago, which took votes away from traditional heavyweight parties such as the Social Democrats (Social Democrats) and the Democratic Union Party. Christian (conservative).
Maassen is the former head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency (BfV), who was forced to leave public office in 2018, “under a cloud of accusations” of providing information to the AfD and casting doubt on “reports of far-right violence against foreigners.” '.
Deutsche Welle reported:
Maassen said this would counter the CDU's slide into what he described as a “green left position” under leader Friedrich Merz.
Werteunion was founded in 2017 as an ultra-conservative wing of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party. Members claimed to represent the “basic core” of the CDU, and accused then-Chancellor Angela Merkel of abandoning her party's conservative values by allowing more than a million people, largely fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, into Germany.
The group has more than 4,000 members and is approaching 6,000, according to the news magazine Der Spiegel, quoting its deputy federal leader, Hans Pestner. A Werteunion spokesman said several hundred members attended Saturday's meeting, which was not open to the public.
The move by Werterunion comes after a similar split occurred on the far left, where well-known figure Sahra Wagenknecht also launched her own “conservative left” (whatever that means) party in early January.
“'the [Werterunion] Maassen said that the party could actually run in the state elections in eastern Germany and would work with all parties ready for political change in Germany, and did not rule out cooperation with the far-right populist Alternative for Germany party.
The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party leads opinion polls in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg Before the fall statewide elections there. Nationally, the AfD is the second largest party with 23% support, behind only the CDU.
