The CDU politician has practically no chance of becoming President.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Max Otte, 57, is planning to be kicked out of the CDU. The head of the Union of Values, a pool of conservative members of the CDU and CSU, is running as the AfD’s candidate for the office of Federal President. The CDU therefore wants to exclude Otte from the party. According to information from participants, the federal executive board decided unanimously on Tuesday to initiate a corresponding procedure.
According to his own statements, the economist has already voted for the AfD and sees the party as “clearly based on the Basic Law”. He therefore described his nomination as “a great honor”, especially since he was already on the Board of Trustees of the AfD-affiliated Desiderius Erasmus Foundation.
And yet Otte has been a member of the CDU since 1991 and was a scholarship holder of the party foundation. He earns his money as a university lecturer, fund manager and best-selling author.
Otte disturbs the CDU because it has just elected a new leadership around Friedrich Merz. The choice still has to be confirmed in writing. From next week, the “Team Merz” wants to appear as one, stand for departure and inspire the party in the four upcoming state elections.
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No wonder that resistance to Otte quickly broke ground on Tuesday: In the morning, the parliamentary manager of the Union faction, Thorsten Frei, accused Otte of “party-damaging behavior” that “necessarily leads to a party expulsion”.
At 6 p.m., the federal executive board wants to deliberate
CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt asked him “to give up his party membership”. And Tobias Hans, Prime Minister of Saarland, where the first state elections are due in March, considers the exclusion to be mandatory: “I really don’t see any other way here. We lose our credibility if we tolerate that.”
At noon, the newly elected General Mario Czaja and General Paul Ziemiak Otte set a deadline of 5:30 p.m.: “We also expressly request Dr. Otte to leave the CDU,” said Ziemiak. He violated the values of the CDU and “had no place in our party”.
Otherwise, the federal executive board wanted to advise at 6 p.m. Otte explained to the online portal “Spiegel”: “I will not voluntarily leave the CDU.” Ottes district association Cologne wants to initiate an exclusion process.
More: Merz elected with a clear result: “There will be no such thing as 2021 with me”