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Germany's co-ruling Christian Democratic Union filed a criminal complaint against one of its own members Thursday after a video surfaced on TikTok showing the 23-year-old party member calling for Muslims to be gassed to death, invoking Nazi Holocaust death camps as a model.
The remarks, made by a CDU member in the western city of Krefeld, prompted an immediate backlash from party leadership, which announced disciplinary proceedings aimed at expelling the individual the same day.
In the video, circulated by the RND editorial network, the man says he would rather see Muslims "killed, like, gassed or something," before directly referencing the Nazi extermination of Jews during World War II: "We used to gas the Jews. And now we're gassing the Muslims."
When the other person in the video declines to respond, he adds, "I don't give a damn. I'll do whatever I want."
The CDU moved swiftly to distance itself from the remarks. "We condemn the disgusting and inhumane statements made by a member in the strongest possible terms," a party spokesperson said, confirming that the local chapter had reported the matter to the public prosecutor's office and initiated steps to expel the individual.
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The CDU's Krefeld branch said in a statement that the remarks "were in every respect inhumane and stood in the most blatant contradiction to the fundamental values of the Christian Democratic Union."
Christopher Schiffer, the CDU district chair, said the party acted immediately after an influencer drew the video to its attention, adding that the branch "strongly distanced" itself from the member on social media.
The local CDU is being supported in the expulsion process by the state party headquarters in Duesseldorf.
The CDU, Germany's main center-right party and the senior partner in the country's current governing coalition, has historically positioned itself as a defender of democratic and Christian-Western values.
Islamophobic rhetoric has become a growing flashpoint across European politics, and German law criminalizes incitement to hatred against segments of the population, meaning the member could face prosecution under existing statutes.
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