"Not a word ever anti-Semitic": Maassen denies "outrageous" allegations

Hans-Georg Maaßen is once again indignant in view of his party expulsion planned by the CDU.

"Not a word ever anti-Semitic": Maassen denies "outrageous" allegations

Hans-Georg Maaßen is once again indignant in view of his party expulsion planned by the CDU. The former head of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution complains that they want to discredit him. He also considers the Central Council's allegations to be "baseless" and promptly counters them.

The controversial former head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Hans-Georg Maassen, has once again defended himself against accusations from his own party after the decision to initiate proceedings to expel him from the CDU. He was accused of using expressions used by anti-Semites, Maassen said on the online program "Schuler! Ask what is". A corresponding letter from CDU General Secretary Mario Czaja called Maassen "brazenly outrageous".

Among other things, the CDU leadership accused the 60-year-old of using "language from the milieu of anti-Semites and conspiracy ideologues to ethnic expressions". Maassen also responded to statements by the scientific director of the education department of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Doron Kiesel. At the end of January he said on ARD: "The harshness with which Mr. Maassen argues today and the strange images he uses from the treasure chest of the National Socialist field make it clear how he thinks and how he probably thought before. "

Maassen now said it was an "outrageous allegation that is in no way justified". The allegations are "insubstantial", but he is happy to talk about them. "Not a word I've ever said is anti-Semitic - in substance." It is impertinent to assume that he means Jews when he uses the term "globalists". He also finds the role of the Central Council in the public discussion questionable: "In Germany, the Central Council of Jews is also assigned a moral authority in a certain respect, which it is not."

The former top official claimed there was a goal to "exclude me from political discourse, to mark me, to discredit me". He complained that nobody spoke about his arguments. In recent years, Maassen has repeatedly attracted attention with statements from the far right and the spread of conspiracy theories. It was mainly because of this that he came under massive criticism. At the end of January, Maassen was elected the new chairman of the arch-conservative Union of Values. He is a member of the Thuringian CDU state association. The CDU federal executive decided on Monday to initiate party exclusion proceedings against him.