The processing of the affair about Bavaria’s Deputy Prime Minister Hubert Aiwanger and an anti-Semitic flyer from school days is heading for the decisive climax: the Free Voter boss has now answered questions from Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) in writing about the allegations in the room. Aiwanger’s answers were transmitted, as confirmed by the State Chancellery BR24. Nothing was initially known about the content of the answers. The questions that the State Chancellery sent to Aiwanger were also not published.
Now it’s Söder’s turn, he must finally decide how to proceed: whether or not to dismiss Aiwanger a good month before the state elections on October 8th. It remained unclear when he would publicly announce this decision, whether at the weekend or later.
On Friday morning, Söder had increased the time pressure on Aiwanger to quickly answer Tuesday’s catalog of questions. “For me it is important that the 25 questions are now answered comprehensively and credibly, and promptly. And promptly means today, in the course of the day,” said the Prime Minister on the sidelines of an appointment in Bechhofen in Central Franconia. However, he still did not set a formal deadline for his deputy. Söder called his public apology from the previous day “overdue”.
Aiwanger speaks of a dirt campaign
Aiwanger then told the German Press Agency in Munich: “If the demand is by tonight, then we will try to deliver by tonight.” He added: “I don’t want to be blamed here.” Before a folk festival appearance in Lower Bavaria, he had just told journalists that the answer was actually only planned for next week.
In his speech there he defended himself: “Yes, I did shit too when I was young. Yes, I did crap too.” But he doesn’t think it’s okay to confront someone later in life with things that happened 35 to 40 years ago, “up to the point of their professional annihilation.” There are many things that one would no longer do in hindsight. But you also have to allow people to become smarter in life. He spoke again of a long-planned smear campaign against him, “perhaps to bring the Greens into the state government.”
Recently, new allegations against Aiwanger
Recently, new allegations had been raised against Aiwanger. “From my memory, I can neither completely deny nor confirm other allegations such as misanthropic jokes,” said Aiwanger on Thursday. He did not respond to an accusation previously made by “Spiegel”. According to this, a former classmate is said to have sworn in an oath that Aiwanger once brought a school folder to class with a racist insult written on the inside. Aiwanger did not respond to inquiries from the German Press Agency.
“I deeply regret if I have hurt feelings through my behavior in relation to the pamphlet in question or other allegations against me from my youth,” Aiwanger said on Thursday. “My sincere apologies go first and foremost to all the victims of the Nazi regime, their surviving dependents and everyone involved and the valuable commemorative work.” Resignation was not an issue.
Spaenle criticizes Aiwanger’s previous behavior
The criticism of Aiwanger has not stopped even after his apology. The President of the Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, told the “Bild”: “Hubert Aiwanger’s apology to the victims and survivors of the Shoah was a good step, albeit a long overdue one.” But: “Unfortunately, he combines this with a complaint about a political motivation of the allegations and still lacks the will to open clarification.”
Bavaria’s Anti-Semitism Commissioner Ludwig Spaenle (CSU) criticized that Aiwanger’s previous behavior “does not correspond to the special responsibility and role model function that is due to him as a holder of a high state office”. “The reversal of cause and effect repeatedly put forward by Mr. Aiwanger is peculiar. The cause and reason for the entire debate are the intolerable flyer and other allegations, not the questions about their clarification.”
SPD calls for Aiwanger’s dismissal
In any case, Bavaria’s SPD leader Florian von Brunn is simultaneously offering Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) to support a minority government without the free voters: “Out of responsibility for our Free State, we would rather tolerate a minority government of the CSU until October 8 than handing over our Bavarian democracy to the right-wing populists,” said von Brunn. Söder “must release Aiwanger”. The leaflet affair is “a heavy burden for Bavaria and thus for the Söder government”.
Söder could only dismiss his deputy Aiwanger with the approval of the state parliament. Since the Free Voters stand by Aiwanger, they are allowed to refuse their approval. Therefore, Söder would be dependent on the votes of the opposition for Aiwanger’s dismissal. If the CSU parliamentary group actually dismissed Aiwanger together with the opposition, the coalition would probably collapse.
Possibly minority government of the CSU
Then Söder would have to work with a pure CSU minority government. Against this background, von Brunn offers tolerating them. State elections are on October 8th.
The Bavarian SPD parliamentary group, together with the Greens and FDP, have requested a special session of the state parliament for next Thursday. It will take the form of the Intermediate Committee, which consists of 51 members and currently represents the Plenary.
With information from dpa