No resignation
Aiwanger apologizes for the leaflet affair – and speaks of a political campaign against him
Hubert Aiwanger apologized for the leaflet affair, especially to victims of the Nazi regime. Bavaria’s deputy head of government also sees a “political campaign” against him and his party.
Bavaria’s Deputy Prime Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) has apologized in the affair of an anti-Semitic flyer from school days. Aiwanger said on Thursday in Munich that he deeply regrets hurting feelings through his behavior in relation to the pamphlet in question or other allegations against him from his youth. “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.”
There was no mention of a possible resignation in his brief statement.
“I was never an anti-Semite, I was never a misanthrope,” Aiwanger continued. He couldn’t remember ever showing a Hitler salute. “I didn’t rehearse any Hitler speeches in front of the mirror.” He can neither completely deny nor confirm misanthropic jokes “from my memory”. He formally apologizes for this, “should this have happened,” said Aiwanger.
At the end of his statement, the Bavarian Economics Minister also launched a counterattack: “However, it is unacceptable that these misconducts are now being exploited in a political campaign against me and my party.” He has the impression that he should be “politically and personally finished”. A negative picture has been drawn of him in the last few days. “That’s not me. That’s not Hubert Aiwanger,” he concluded the statement and didn’t allow any questions before he left the room for the press conference that had been called at short notice.
Numerous allegations against Hubert Aiwanger
More allegations had recently been made against the head of the Free Voters during his school days. The following message was published on Aiwanger’s account on the online network X (formerly Twitter) late Wednesday evening: “It’s getting more and more absurd. Another person claims that I had Mein Kampf in my school bag. Who would come up with such nonsense!?” As a rule, the Free Voters boss writes all the posts himself. There was initially no confirmation as to whether that was the case this time as well.
The “Süddeutsche Zeitung” had previously quoted an unnamed former classmate of Aiwanger as having often carried Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” with him in his school bag. She can confirm this because she held the book in her own hands.
The pressure on Aiwanger had recently increased. CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt had called for further clarification, as had CDU party leader Friedrich Merz. Both described the allegations as “a highly unsavory story”. Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder had previously presented his deputy with a catalog of 25 questions on the subject for written answers.
At the request of the SPD, Greens and FDP, a special session on the leaflet affair in the Bavarian state parliament was convened for September 7th. The so-called interim committee on the subject should meet there.
Report on anti-Semitic hate newspaper had triggered affair
The “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (Saturday) had reported on the flyer with anti-Semitic content. The Free Voters had recently criticized the current events as a “dirty campaign”. Aiwanger wrote on X/Twitter on Wednesday: “#Dirty campaigns end up backfiring. #Aiwanger”. Demands for clarification, including from Chancellor Olaf Scholz, are rejected by the Free Voters: The SPD politician doesn’t even want to be able to remember things that were only a few years ago.
A new state parliament will be elected in Bavaria on October 8th. The CSU had always stated that it wanted to continue the coalition with the Free Voters after the election. All surveys left almost no doubt that this will also be possible. The CSU has governed the Free State since 2018 together with the Free Voters. The consequences of the current crisis were initially completely unforeseeable.
Aiwanger had already hit the headlines nationwide in June because of controversial statements at a rally in Erding. Among other things, he said there that the silent majority had to “take back democracy”. As so often before, he was then accused of populism and now also a choice of words à la AfD.