It's not one of those things that will get much traction in the German news. Newspapers will give it ten lines....the state-run news network will probably give it a twenty-second moment, and it'll just close out.
What is generally said is that the former Saxon justice minister....Steffen Heitmann....who was currently an interim candidate for the Saxson office of president (the state governor) as a CDU member.....is no longer a CDU member. He basically sent a letter to the CDU headquarters yesterday and removed himself as a party member.
Reason? Well....the whole ill-defined-poorly-planned immigration and refugee crisis.
Heitmann was not a household name in Germany itself. He was a regional guy from Saxson and probably a fair portion of the locals in Saxson had some identification of the guy and his background.
What's interesting about Heitmann....because I sat and read up on the guy....is that he started out as a theology guy (a church minister). He lived a pretty tough life. His dad was in the German Army at the close of WW II and was captured by the Russians. His dad never returned home....dying in 1945. He was raised mostly by his grandparents in the Dresden region (far eastern side of Germany) after his mother died in the late 1950s. At some point in the mid-1970s.....after he'd become a full-up minister....he got into church-related legal education and training.
As things hyped up at the end of the 1980s.....he was part of a anti-state group envisioning a new direction and the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the 1990s....he became a lawyer and a member of the CDU Party in Saxson.
If you were looking for a respectable guy who demonstrated ethics and avoided corruption....this was the guy.
As for his letter to the party about his resignation? My guess is that he's looking at the future and the stability of the party itself. There's a fair amount of negativity within the right-leaning CDU and there are obvious members who just avoid any discussion on refugees, asylum seekers or immigrants....because if they did speak in public....it wouldn't be a charming or pleasant conversation.
The potential that Heitmann would join the AfD? Well....I can't really speculate about that. There is a state election approaching. Although I would speculate that it's too late for Heitmann to become a member, get recognized, and get onto the ballot.
So, for the most part....it's just a story about a guy who said 'enough' and walked away....while stating publicly to the Chancellor that the policy in effect won't work. And the truth is.....he might not be the last guy who resigns from the CDU.
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