The WertUnion announced after the general assembly that it was breaking away from former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU and its regional ally the CSU in Bavaria. “By a large majority, members of VerteUnion voted to form a party of the same name“, declared its leader Hans-Georg Massen. “The party can already compete in regional elections in East Germany and work with all parties (…) that are ready for political change in Germany.», he added, not excluding cooperation with the nationalist right-wing party AfD.
The anti-immigration party leads opinion polls in three regional elections in the east of the country, where it has the most supporters. Major parties such as the CDU or Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) have ruled out any coalition with the AfD. VertUnion was formed in 2017 by a group of members of the CDU and CSU, who opposed Angela Merkel’s policies, especially on welcoming thousands of illegal immigrants to Germany.
Hans-Georg Maassen is the former head of the German domestic intelligence service, who was forced to resign in 2018 after comments hostile to immigration. The new party said it had about 4,000 members, most of them from the CDU and CSU. The announcement comes as the AfD is in the spotlight following revelations that some of its members attended a meeting in November about a plan to deport immigrants and foreign-born German citizens en masse.Not assimilated“
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Two members of Vertünen were at the meeting in Potsdam, German investigative media Corrective revealed. AFD for its part confirmed the presence of its members, but refused to support the project of “.MigrationDefended during this meeting by a figure in the identity movement, the Austrian Martin Sellner, a supporter of “A big change” Revelations about the meeting shook Germany, with the content of the discussions prompting comparisons with Nazi ideology. Demonstrations against the AfD have increased in Germany following the information and were organized in 100 areas between Friday and Sunday. More than 100,000 people took part across Germany on Saturday. .
