In 2018, Maassen was dismissed from the position of head of the BfV (German Office for the Protection of the Constitution), After the authenticity of a video of far-right activists chasing migrants in the city of Chemnitz was publicly questioned.
Since the incident, Maassen has made numerous anti-immigration comments sympathetic to extremist views, which is why his new party decided The public mostly considers Werteunion to be a far-right formation.
Hans-Georg Maassen was the third German leader to launch a new party so far this year. The two main parties in Germany, the Christian Democratic Union and the Social Democratic Party, are facing a serious popularity crisis, which is why new parties are emerging one after another to attract disillusioned voters. Maassen himself was a member of the Christian Democratic Union.
The Werteunion party competes not only with the main parties, but also with other right-wing groupings. Examples include the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Which gained significant support in the territories of the former German Democratic Republic. Maassen also expressed openness to cooperation with the Alternative for Germany party in certain areas, but he rejected the idea of forming a coalition at the present time.
Source: Reuters
Cover image source: Patrick Bliol/Image Alliance via Getty Images
