Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) has sharply reprimanded his Vice Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) and asked him to apologize for controversial statements in the Corona policy. In the discussion about possible political pressure on people who are not vaccinated against the coronavirus, Aiwanger recently warned against an “apartheid discussion” and thus recently attracted a lot of criticism from the CSU.
Now Söder, who had recently remained silent, saw himself forced to intervene: These were “disturbing statements” that were inappropriate for a deputy prime minister, said Söder on Saturday at the district party conference of the Upper Bavaria CSU in Unterhaching near Munich. Aiwanger should take back the choice of words and apologize for it, demanded the head of government.
In view of the criticism of his choice of words, Aiwanger had made it clear a few days ago that he felt misunderstood. “I have warned that if we take ill-considered vaccination policies, we will deliver ammunition to those who oppose vaccination and get involved in an apartheid discussion,” he said. He didn’t mean to say that differences between vaccinated and non-vaccinated people could be compared to apartheid. The apartheid policy was an internationally largely outlawed action by the white minority population, especially against the black majority in South Africa, but also against other ethnic groups.