[6] The group, which was quite small at the time, argued against Angela Merkel's approaches to the Euro rescue [de] and the 2015 European migrant crisis.

The 2019 resolution of the presidium and executive committee of the CDU related to the murder of Walter Lübcke indirectly accused Maaßen and the Values Union of being complicit: "Anyone who supports the AfD must know that they are poisoning the social climate and brutalizing the political discourse".

[13] The deputy federal chairwoman and North Rhine-Westphalia state leader of the Values Union, Simone Baum, took part in a secret networking meeting between the AfD and other right-wing extremists.

[14] At the meeting, the right-wing extremist participants discussed how an expulsion or "remigration" of migrants and people who think differently politically in Germany would be possible.

[15] The CDU initiated party expulsion proceedings against Baum and the city of Cologne terminated her employment with immediate effect, likewise due to her participation at the secret meeting.

[16] In the beginning of 2024, Maaßen announced a vote among the association members in order to turn the Values Union into a political party that will take an anti-immigration course.

[17] At a general meeting of the Values Union on 20 January 2024 in Erfurt, its members voted to form a new party with a plan to participate in the upcoming September 2024 regional elections in Thuringia, Saxony, and Brandenburg.