Germany Turns Right: Conservative Faction of Christian Democratic Union Decides To Form New Rightwing Party – Against Immigration, Open To Working With Surging AfD

The political pendulum is Germany is swinging rapidly to the right, as the once stable spectrum of parties is splintering into a much more divided range of offers.

Now it does appear to be another choice on the right, after members of the Werteunion, or Values Union, a heavily conservative wing of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), decided on Saturday, at a meeting in Erfurt, to establish themselves as a new party.

Reuters reported:

“Members of the group gave Chairman Hans-Georg Maassen, in a closed party meeting in the city of Erfurt, a mandate by a large majority to initiate the founding of a ‘conservative-liberal’ party, according to a statement from the group. Maassen is a former domestic security official popular with anti-immigration voters.

The party will be founded quickly so it can take part in state elections in Thuringia, Saxony and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in September. The move could come as soon as February, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.

With the creation of new parties, Germany’s political landscape risks splintering further following the formation of Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) 11 years ago, which has taken votes away from traditional heavyweights such as the SPD (social democrats) and CDU (conservatives).”

Maassen is the former head of the German domestic intelligence agency (the BfV), who was forced out of public office in 2018, ‘under a cloud of accusations’ of providing information to the AfD and questioning ‘reports of far-right violence against foreigners’.

Deutsche Welle reported:

“Maassen said it would counter the CDU’s slip into what he described as a ‘left-green position’ under leader Friedrich Merz.

The Werteunion was started in 2017 as a highly conservative wing of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Members claimed to represent the “core essence” of the CDU, charging then-Chancellor Angela Merkel with abandoning her party’s conservative values by allowing over a million people, largely fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, into Germany.

The group has over 4,000 members and is approaching 6,000, Der Spiegel newsmagazine reported its federal deputy leader Hans Pistner as saying. A Werteunion spokesperson said several hundred members attended Saturday’s meeting, which was not open to the public.”

This move by the Werterunion comes after a similar fracturing happened in the far left, with well-known figure Sahra Wagenknecht also launching her own ‘leftwing-conservative’ (whatever that means) party in early January.

“‘The [Werterunion] party could already run in the state elections in eastern Germany and would work with all parties … that are ready for a political change in Germany’, said Maassen, not ruling out cooperation with the far-right populist Alternative for Germany party.

The anti-immigration AfD leads opinion polls in Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg ahead of autumn’s state-wide votes there. Nationally the AfD is polling as the second largest party at about 23% support, behind only the CDU.”