The chairman of the values ​​union, Max Otte, has reacted to the tendency to split in the union of conservative union members. “I would like to correct that: Neither the regional association in Bavaria nor that in Baden-Württemberg has resigned. Board members and officials have resigned, "Otte told the German Press Agency on Sunday." These are backroom politicians who do not want to recognize my election. These are injured vanities. " said that entries and exits are balanced and that the values ​​union will emerge stronger from this process.

On Saturday, however, the Bavarian Values ​​Union decided unanimously at a members' meeting to withdraw from the federal association. That said the state chairwoman Juliane Ried. There are tendencies to split in the organization in several federal states. In Baden-Württemberg, the state board announced its resignation almost completely in protest against the election of the economist Max Otte as the new federal chairman, as the deputy state chief Oliver Kämpf told the German press agency. In a letter to the federal executive it says: "The goals of the ValuesUnion will no longer be achieved with the current federal executive." The background is an "approach to ethnic and nationalistic issues". This runs counter to the conservative and economically liberal course of the state board members.

In the Rhineland-Palatinate values ​​union, the state executive resigned from office on Saturday evening with immediate effect. "Our resignations from the WertUnion eV association will follow soon," announced the previous chairman Peter Scholze. The reason is the “toxic” effect Otte has on the perception and acceptance of the Union of Values. There is also a risk of a rampant “bunker mentality” and radicalization. "A target-oriented political work in the sense of our founding idea has become impossible from our point of view under these circumstances", it says in the declaration of Scholzes, his two deputies and three assessors.

The ValuesUnion sees itself as a representative of the conservative current in the Union, but is not an official party division.

At the end of May, Otte succeeded Alexander Mitsch from Heidelberg in the office of chairman, who had previously announced his withdrawal.

Within the Union of Values, Otte's tight election sparked a great dispute.

The fund manager was Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the AfD-affiliated Desiderius Erasmus Foundation until January 2021.

"A dead horse"

According to Kämpf, the values ​​union is slowly dissolving, especially in the south of Germany there have been numerous withdrawals and resignations.

“The values ​​union is like a dead horse that you have to dismount from,” he said.

In Bavaria it is now called - as when it was founded in 2014 - "Conservative departure for values ​​and freedom", as Ried said. According to her information, the association merged with the Values ​​Union in 2019. "We want to concentrate on the CSU again," said 38-year-old Ried of the dpa to justify the exit. However, they continued to pursue common goals with the Values ​​Union. However: The policy of the CSU leadership is "currently more problematic than that of the CDU, so that one has to concentrate on Bavaria and the basis of the CSU with all his might", wrote Ried on the Facebook page of the club. It is important to counter a “left turn” by the CSU. 

Baden-Württemberg's deputy head of state, Kämpf, said that the Union of Values ​​founded by Mitsch practically no longer exists.

"The name has been destroyed." It is unacceptable that the ValuesUnion opens up to other groups or parties.

In the state association in the south-west there are “a lot of loyal CDU members” who want to influence the course of the party, but that is no longer possible via the values ​​union.

According to Kämpf, the organization has around 3700 members nationwide.

The CDU has a total of around 400,000 members, the CSU around 140,000.