Sure, you could make it easy on yourself and call out to the hunters: It’s your own fault, why did you choose Ernst Weidenbusch as President of the Bavarian Hunting Association (BJV) who is known to polarize people? Now you have the debacle. But the hunters didn’t deserve that. If only because they are far too important to indulge in wild arguments about how to deal with each other and the leadership style of their superiors. If there are to be reasonably stable forests in Bavaria in the future, the hunters are needed. In the climate crisis, who else is supposed to ensure that wild animals don’t get the upper hand in them?
But what do the hunters do? They are once again dealing with themselves. Or rather with their president, the CSU member of parliament Weidenbusch. The accusation: Weidenbusch is extremely rude in dealing with all volunteers and full-time employees in the BJV, who have a different world view than he does. A number of full-time employees are said to have resigned from the office because they no longer wanted to accept it. Weidenbusch, who has only been president of the hunters for almost two years, of course firmly denies everything.
The quarrels have something of a déjà vu. Even Weidenbusch’s predecessor, Jürgen Vocke, was heavily disputed because of his management style and financial management. That’s why Vocke finally resigned. Weidenbusch promised a modern and above all transparent BJV. And he wanted to get the hunters out of their isolation from the foresters, forest owners, conservationists and farmers. Because the BJV had also fallen out with them, or their organizations, over the course of time.
In the meantime, many in the BJV say that the promises not only came to nothing. But that the misery is worse than ever. Unlike Vocke, Weidenbusch is not expected to resign. That’s why a number of hunters are said to be working towards his deselection. That could only happen at an extraordinary national assembly.
The formal hurdle is not that high: ten percent of the BJV district groups have to request it in writing. In his last election as Jäger President, Weidenbusch only got 318 votes. 273 went to an opposing candidate, 31 delegates abstained. Things could soon get tight for the Jäger President.