The centre-right Christian Social Union (CSU) in Bavaria has launched expulsion proceedings against long-serving party member Markus Hammer, igniting a fierce debate about the party’s relationship with the right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).
Hammer, who has been a CSU member for 27 years, took part in a protest in February in Puchheim, Bavaria, against a children’s book reading hosted by drag queen ‘Vicky Voyage.’
The event, aimed at children as young as four, was organised as a celebration of diversity but provoked controversy among conservatives who considered it inappropriate for such a young audience.
Although the demonstration was organised by AfD members, Hammer insists he attended in a private capacity and in his role as deputy state chairman of the WerteUnion, a conservative network.
Speaking to Apollo News, he said he felt it was important to voice opposition to what he described as “not something I could accept without criticism.” During his speech, he introduced himself as a CSU member but emphasised that he did not speak on behalf of the party.
Despite this clarification, the CSU district chairwoman in Fürstenfeldbruck, Katrin Staffler, has accused Hammer of giving political legitimacy to the AfD by sharing a platform with its members.
In her formal application for his expulsion, Staffler argued that Hammer’s language—calling the reading “early sexualisation” and “hard ideology”—amounted to “defamation” and risked damaging the CSU’s reputation. She said Hammer had adopted narratives “that are identical in content to the AfD’s positions.”
She went further, claiming that Hammer’s criticism of the so-called firewall between the CSU and AfD constituted a deliberate breach of loyalty to party principles.
Staffler, however, did not wish to comment on whether the CSU approves or disapproves of drag queen readings in front of children.
Hammer says he was given no opportunity to defend himself before proceedings were initiated and only learnt the official grounds for expulsion after repeated requests.
The district leadership had demanded his voluntary resignation as early as February, threatening to begin formal procedures if he refused. He said he has no intention of quitting a party he had served for nearly three decades.
The affair underscores a wider dilemma for the governing centre-right CDU/CSU alliance: whether defending traditional values should be subordinated to an uncompromising policy of distancing themselves from the AfD.
