The party is the third to be founded this year in Germany, further fragmenting the political landscape and making electoral predictions tricky ahead of European parliamentary polls and votes in half the country’s municipalities and three states.
The Werteunion (Values Union), is
headed by Hans–Georg Maaßen, who was dismissed as head of Germany’s Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) in 2018.
Maaßen was forced to resign after initially
questioning the authenticity of a video showing far–right extremists chasing migrants in the eastern city of Chemnitz, saying it might have been faked.
The lawyer has since become known for his increasingly radical commentary on immigration,
becoming a hero to far–right activists.
A former member of the opposition Christian Democrats,
Maaßen is himself now being monitored by the security agency he ran, he said last month. The BfV said privacy law meant it could not comment on individual cases.
“12:32 o’clock. Done!” Maaßen said on social media platform X, posting a photo of himself and colleagues in front of a German flag on the boat.
With Germany’s mainstream parties well down in polls compared to their 1980s heyday when the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats regularly polled near 50%, many
new parties have sought to capitalize on frustration with the establishment.
This is yet another new political grouping that has appeared in Germany in 2024. Earlier, leftist politician Sahra Wagenknecht founded a new left–leaning populist party – Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht.
