The free voter boss Hubert Aiwanger has shown remorse after the anger about the publication of voter surveys for the federal election. “I apologize in all form for the tweet from election Sunday,” said the Bavarian Minister for Economic Affairs in the Bavarian state parliament. A legal review is currently being carried out by the Federal Returning Officer. Therefore, he now “does not want to make any further statements” on the matter.
Prior to this, Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) had demanded a public apology from Aiwanger – but on Tuesday the head of the Free Voters had refused.
The reactions to the brief apology from the head of the Free Voters in the Bavarian state parliament were mostly critical. Only Aiwanger’s party colleague Fabian Mehring expressed the view that “to apologize in public, that deserves respect”. The SPD MP Florian von Brunn attacked Aiwanger sharply: “It is a big task to govern this country – and in the last few days you have shown again that you are not up to the task.” He sees the fact that Aiwanger is still in office as a sign of the weakness of the coalition – this is at the end, the SPD has made an urgent motion for Aiwanger to be dismissed.
Thomas Gehring from the Greens spoke of the “poorest excuse you can imagine”. You can feel that it happened only “under pressure from the Prime Minister”. The Federal Returning Officer should “reach the punishment,” he recommended. Gehring also emphasized that beyond the sharply criticized tweet, Aiwanger had sent “one tweet message after the other” on Sunday – and thus violated generally applicable rules of decency in the political world. Canvassing on election Sunday – “you don’t do that”.
“That’s why you should vacate your post”
The FDP parliamentary group chairman in the Bavarian state parliament, Martin Hagen, also rated Aiwanger’s apology as “half baked”. If you are in politics, you know that exit polls are confidential. Aiwanger has shown again and again that he is “not up to the task”. “That’s why you should vacate your post,” he urged the Bavarian Minister for Economic Affairs. The AfD parliamentary group leader Ingo Hahn said that Aiwanger was using all means, “including illegal ones, that speaks volumes”.
Söder and Aiwanger had met on Wednesday morning for a crisis discussion, as Söder announced afterwards, according to participants, in a meeting of the CSU parliamentary group. The Prime Minister is said to have demanded a public apology.
Aiwanger had distributed numbers from a post-election survey on Twitter on Sunday while the vote for the federal election was still in progress – combined with the call to give the “last votes” to the free voters. The tweet was deleted after a short time. Since then, the Federal Returning Officer has been investigating Aiwanger’s violation of the electoral law.