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The deputy federal chairwoman and North Rhine-Westphalia state head of the Union of Values, Simone Baum

Photo: Christoph Hardt / Future Image / IMAGO

The CDU wants to expel a North Rhine-Westphalian party member because of his participation in a meeting of radical right-wingers in Potsdam. This is the deputy federal chairwoman and North Rhine-Westphalia state head of the Union of Values, Simone Baum. At a board meeting in Rösrath on Friday, the Oberberg CDU district association decided to submit a formal application to the district party court.

The CDU is not naming names for party law reasons. The exclusion process is not public. However, the Values ​​Union confirmed the process upon request and admitted that Baum, who has been a CDU member since 2008, took part in the meeting - but not as a delegated representative of the association.

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From circles in the North Rhine-Westphalian CDU it was said on Friday that the exclusion process would be pushed forward as quickly as possible: "Such people have no place with us."

The Oberberg CDU district association had already set up a hearing two weeks ago to question Baum about her participation. The deadline expired on Friday.

"In her statement to the CDU, Simone Baum did not deny attending the meeting in Potsdam," a spokesman for the Values ​​Union responded to a request. "But she expressly denied that the 'mass expulsion' claimed in the media or the withdrawal of German citizenship based on ethnic criteria were discussed there or even specifically planned."

Baum expressly pointed out in her letter that she only heard topics there that federal and state politicians from the SPD to the CDU had already spoken about many times - such as the deportation of rejected asylum seekers or so-called clan criminals.

Until the Values ​​Union becomes a party, Baum wanted to stay in the CDU

The final sentence of her letter to the CDU hearing reads: “If the Union of Values ​​becomes a party, I may be considering leaving the CDU in Germany in order to belong to a party in the future in which the true values ​​of the CDU are represented. I will remain in the CDU until I leave.”

The week before last, the media company Correctiv made public a meeting of radical right-wingers on November 25th in Potsdam, in which AfD politicians as well as individual members of the CDU and the very conservative Values ​​Union took part. The former head of the Identitarian Movement in Austria, Martin Sellner, said he spoke about “remigration” at the meeting. When right-wing extremists use this term, they usually mean that large numbers of people of foreign origin should leave the country - even under duress.

mfh/dpa