BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st December, 2019) The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), the party of Chancellor Angela Merkel, and its fragile alliance with other political forces have been shaken up by a discovery of a party member with potential links to Neo-Nazis.
Last week, CDU official Robert Moeritz admitted to being a steward at a neo-Nazi administration in 2011. He had also been discovered to have a tattoo of a black sun � a symbol often embraced by neo-Nazis. In addition, Moeritz said he had been a member of Uniter, a support organization for military personnel, which, according to media reports, may have been linked to survivalist groups. According to The Guardian newspaper, some of the chats set up by the Uniter founder had been used to discuss Islamist terrorist attacks and response strategies.
The CDU leader and Germany's defense minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, as quoted by Sueddeutsche Zeitung, warned Uniter members that they were opening themselves up to suspicions of "being close to right-wing extremist networks" by associating with the group. Uniter took issue with the defense minister's warning and accused her staff of failing to do their research.
Earlier on Friday, Moeritz announced he was leaving the party. However, his case has already driven a wedge between CDU and its regional coalition partners.
In Saxony-Anhalt, where Moeritz's story played out, the CDU is ruling in coalition with the Greens and the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The Greens urged the CDU to intervene citing reputational risks.
"Connections to right-wing extremist networks are not an internal affair," the Greens said, adding that the fight against right-wing extremism should have been a priority.
A local CDU branch initially supported Moeritz. Kramp-Karrenbauer said of him: "If it turns out that this trust has been misused, then I believe that the appropriate consequences must also be drawn."
But Moeritz does not seem to be the only CDU member somehow involved with Uniter. According to Tagesspiegel, three other party members from Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony and Brandenburg are linked to it.
The scandal comes shortly after the SPD leadership election cast a shadow over the future of a federal-level ruling coalition of the CDU and the SPD. Norbert Walter-Borjans and Saskia Esken were confirmed as new SPD leaders in early December. The duo have been critical of the alliance with Merkel's party and promised they would renegotiate the terms of the deal.
This raises the issue of cordon sanitaire around the Alternative for Germany (AfD), a right-wing party denied alliance with major German parties despite the gains it has been making at regional elections. In 2016, CDU won 30 seats in a local parliament of Saxony-Anhalt, but it was AfD that came second with 24 seats.
However, at last week's party conference, Saxony-Anhalt's CDU said it would not form a coalition with AfD.
AfD has recently been similarly snubbed in Saxony, where it won 38 seats at the election held on September 1. It came second after CDU with its 45 seats, but this week Saxony's CDU signed an agreement with the Greens and the SPD.
Tino Chrupalla, the Federal speaker for AfD at the German federal parliament, believes that the Saxony alliance means that the CDU "throws its last values overboard."
"The CDU is denying voters the 'bourgeois' center right government that they voted for on September 1 with a large majority, namely a coalition of the CDU and AfD," Chrupalla told Sputnik.
However, Kramp-Karrenbauer maintained after the election in Saxony that CDU would not join forces with AfD.
