Former president of the Verfassungsschutz (Germany's domestic intelligence agency) Hans-Georg Maaßen has announced that he will turn the Werteunion (Values Union), initially founded as an (unrecognized) internal faction of CDU/CSU, into a proper party. The political position will be to the right of CDU/CSU and it will be open towards coalitions with the AfD. It will try to run e.g. in the Thuringian state election on September 1, 2024, where Maaßen is trying to form an alliance with other right-wing opposition parties and politicians. Maybe also other elections, e.g. the European elections.
Call me sceptical. This will most likely turn out to be another "head birth" of a certain milieu to the right of CDU/CSU. Yes, the initial AfD was in some respect a similar project, but it only got successful because it was already then supported by the far-right which is now firmly in the hand of the AfD and has no reason to switch. Bernd's Lucke Wir Bürger (until 2023 LKR, until 2016 ALFA) has always achieved humiliatingly low results.
On the other hand who thinks that the Traffic Lights coalition's politics are too left-wing, but generally values stability and democracy, will continue to vote for the CDU/CSU, particularly in opposition.
In the past some support might have come from right-wing soft-FDP voters, but they are long gone.
The Free Voters have shown that there is some potential in this political sector, but it's limited (2-4% federally). The Free Voters also have the advantage of being not obviously neo-liberal, rooted in local and regional politics and (apart from Hubert Aiwanger's recent positioning) much more ambiguously positioned on the spectrum between Center and Right. Maaßen might want to integrate them into his political project, but they won't want.
Wagenknecht on the other hand is mostly targeting disappointed voters that voted for left of center parties at some point in the past. Differently from Maaßen she's Anti-Western, economically much more to the left, and also less (ethnic) nationalist and less socially conservative.
Don't get me wrong. The whole "conservative" school of thought is relevant in Germany, there is a whole mediatic space spanning from the CDU/CSU's and FDP's right wing to the "moderate" wing of the AfD. The electoral market just doesn't seem to be there at the moment. Parties with superficial similarities that currently have measurable support, have this support because they are not like Maaßen's project. The mediatic/intellectual right-wing milieu in my opinion is better advised not to focus on one (probably failing) party and instead keep its influence on all of them.
It's clearly meant to replace the dead FDP.
Whether it will become the bridge for a CDU+AFD coalition I doubt it, since the present CDU leader wants a coalition with the present government.
It's unlikely that there will be much of a change, beyond who's Chancellor, before 2029, unless the AFD come 1st in 2025.
Which is not likely as long as the CDU is in opposition.
