Anti-Semitism in the Junge Union: Running against your own firewall

In a chat, a member of the Junge Union (JU) Thuringia stands out with sexist and anti-Semitic comments. It has since left the JU, as the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) first reported. In the internal chat of the Junge Union, the youth organization of the CDU and CSU, he insulted the then JU federal treasurer Clara von Nathusius. The member wrote that this is what happens when you elect women to boards. And literally: “But let’s be honest: Clara is Jewish, they know how to handle money, so it can’t be an oversight.”

The JU member's statements referred to the events surrounding Germany Day: the annual, nationwide meeting of the youth organization last weekend. The previous JU treasurer and federal board member Clara von Nathusius unexpectedly no longer appeared at Germany Day. During her term of office, funding was called up that was not covered by the resolutions of the Federal Executive Board. The JU had to pay back 350,000 euros including interest to the Family Ministry and take out a loan from the Union.

Clara von Nathusius is probably one of the best-known faces of the youth organization on Instagram. Her Insta videos sometimes reach millions of views. She recently attracted attention with controversial statements about the firewall. In the “Report from Berlin” you said that the fire wall was a failed project.

A spokesman for the Junge Union told the taz when asked: “The Young Union of Germany clearly stands on the side of the Jews in our country.” The spokesman points out that exclusion proceedings were initiated against the member in question on the same day the comment was written. Anti-Semitism, regardless of who it comes from and in what context it occurs, must be “resolutely opposed”. Already on Saturday, the state head of the Thuringian JU, Lennart Geibert, told “Funke Medien Thüringen” that the comment was “absolutely disgusting”. The member had already resigned before the exclusion.

On Germany Day, the JU was particularly concerned with anti-Semitism among political opponents. On Sunday she wanted to take a stand against anti-Semitism from the left, which she suspects exists in the Berlin Left Party. They had projected the words “Never again is now” onto the screen. In response to the red-green-red exploratory talks in Berlin that concluded on Saturday, the JU also passed a resolution on Sunday morning: A coalition of the SPD and the Greens with the Left Party should be politically outlawed, and the Berlin state government should be excluded from all information from the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Federal Criminal Police Office. They also called for an immediate ban on associations and a federal committee to document violations of the law in Berlin's Red City Hall.