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Country house Adlon on Lehnitzsee in Postdam

Photo: Jürgen Ritter / IMAGO

As a consequence of the meeting of radical right-wingers in a villa in Potsdam, the owner of the property should no longer remain a member of the CDU. The party's district association wants to initiate a party exclusion process, as it announced on Friday. The owner of the guest house on Lehnitzsee, Wilhelm Wilderink, where the meeting took place, is a member of the Potsdam CDU district executive committee. The board itself is now pushing for him to leave the party. When asked, Wilderink himself has not yet commented on the threatened sanction.

First of all, he should be given the opportunity to voluntarily resign from the CDU until next Monday (February 5th). The CDU said on Friday that he had not yet announced his resignation.

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In a letter to acquaintances and business partners that SPIEGEL obtained, Wilderink recently downplayed the meeting. The aim of the meeting was not “to plan any strategies,” “but simply to raise donations that would benefit the social media projects presented,” he explains there. The audience “did not consist of a crude mix of right-wing extremists and right-wing AfDers,” as was reported. “The framework was more intellectual and liberal,” said Wilderink in the letter. The registration for the event was made by a private individual, writes Wilderink. Due to a staff shortage, he had to supervise the event and also speak to guests.

Wilderink calls “Correctiv” a “seditionist”

The reporting on the topic is about "creating a public opinion that a ban on the AfD should ensure social security," it continues. Well-known conservatives were to be “economically executed.” “My family is basically welcome collateral damage,” writes the politician. He doesn't think much of the "SPD-affiliated" press and even describes the media company "Correctiv," which uncovered the meeting, as a "seditionist." In the letter, Wilderink then recommends the right-wing extremist broadcaster Kontrafunk as a better source of information - which the right-wing extremist AfD politician Björn Höcke otherwise likes to refer to.

He makes his membership in the CDU dependent on "whether Messrs. Merz and Linnemann actually implement the CDU's new course and thus make a new party unnecessary."

The district chairman of the CDU Potsdam, Steeven Breetz, said on Thursday evening on the RBB program “Brandenburg aktuell” that Wilderink had initially stated that he was not at the controversial meeting. However, he later admitted to participating – “to whatever extent”. The CDU sees its principles violated by participating in the meeting of radical right-wingers. “We want to make it clear that we don’t support this,” said Breetz.

Deadline by Monday

“If the district executive committee does not receive a declaration of resignation by Monday, February 5th, the executive district executive committee will be instructed to initiate a party exclusion process in coordination with the federal and state associations in accordance with Section 11 of the statutes of the CDU Germany,” said a statement from the CDU. A party court is then responsible for this. The CDU also wants to exclude a North Rhine-Westphalian party member because of his participation in the meeting.

The background is reports from the media company “Correctiv” about 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” also took part.

The former head of the “Identitarian Movement” in Austria, Martin Sellner, confirmed that 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.

akm/mfh/dpa