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Berlin (AP) - The head of the CDU parliamentary group in Thuringia, Mario Voigt, has defended the controversial nomination of ex-constitutional protection chief Hans-Georg Maassen as a candidate for the Bundestag.

Angela Merkel and Friedrich Merz belonged to the CDU people's party, "but also a Mr. Maaßen," said the Thuringian Union's top candidate for the state elections in Berlin on Tuesday.

If this integration within the pluralism in society does not succeed, the spectrum of opinion becomes very narrow, "and then the binding forces and the centrifugal forces become too great".

In Thuringia, a new state parliament will be elected on September 26th at the same time as the general election.

The democratic spectrum ends to the right of the Union, said Voigt. “Exactly for the reason, I think, we have to manage something like that to pull these firewalls against the AfD”. There is consensus in the regional association that the AfD is the main political opponent alongside the left. It is measured "in the alcohol range, where there are people who have any other feeling". Maassen have made his demarcation from the AfD public several times - "I have no reason to doubt it". That Maassen tries to win back people from the camp of non-voters or from the AfD, the Union must manage. “If we don't succeed in doing that, then we'll leave out substantial voting shares,” said Voigt.

Voigt stood behind the candidacy for chancellor of CDU boss Armin Laschet, although the regional association in Thuringia was more in favor of Söder.

The general election will be about who speaks the "language of the future" in terms of content and personnel.

Laschet is the right candidate for this, "because he is a bridge builder".

The Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia was able to score well on a video link with the state board and the district chairman.

Someone who has coped well with the structural change in North Rhine-Westphalia and sees the problems also has an understanding of the requirements in the new federal states.

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With the four state elections in Saxony-Anhalt on June 6, as well as in Berlin, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Thuringia together with the federal election on September 26, the east will also play a major role in the federal election campaign, said Voigt.

Elections would not be won in the East alone, but they could be lost in the East.

A large part of the closely contested constituencies of the Union are in the eastern federal states.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210504-99-460546 / 2