The CSU and the farmers have long been inseparable. But the Free Voters around the farmer Aiwanger are competing with the Christian Socialists. Things are crunching again in the self-proclaimed “power coalition”.
The new black and orange house peace praised by Markus Söder did not last too long. Still in December summoned In his first government statement after the state elections, the Bavarian Prime Minister expressed the “newly found trust” in the “power coalition” made up of the CSU and Free Voters (FW).
Around six weeks later, it started to crunch noticeably again. Over the past few days, CSU members have vented their displeasure with Free Voters leader Hubert Aiwanger – and his counterattack was not long in coming.
Fight for the votes of the farmers
The background is the farmers’ protests: As much as the CSU and Free Voters agree in their support of farmers, they compete fiercely for their votes. For decades, farmers were considered the CSU’s core clientele, but the Christian Socialists have now lost many of them to the strengthened FW.
Aiwanger, himself a trained farmer from a village in Lower Bavaria, has an easier time acting as a lawyer for rural areas than Söder, who comes from the second largest Bavarian city of Nuremberg and has a doctorate in law.
Last week was a kind of competition within the coalition for the favor of the farmers can be observed. Hardly a day went by without several Bavarian ministers taking part in anti-traffic light rallies by farmers or other professional groups.
Prime Minister Söder, Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann and Agriculture Minister Michaela Kaniber (CSU) were welcomed at the farmers’ demonstration in Nuremberg on Friday. At the same time, Aiwanger and Transport Minister Christian Bernreiter (CSU) took part in a demo by freight forwarders in Munich.
Aiwanger has made the protests his cause
As exuberantly as the Bavarian farmers’ president Günther Felßner, himself a CSU local politician, praised Söder at the rally in Nuremberg, the crowd’s reactions to the demos suggest another point winner: Aiwanger was celebrated with cheers and shouts of “Hubsi, Hubsi”. Like no other politician, the Free Voters leader and Bavarian Economics Minister has made the farmers’ protests his cause.
Last week he made noteworthy changes to his schedule plenty of space to be able to take part in as many farmer demonstrations as possible. On the first day of the protest week, the Deputy Prime Minister managed an impressive five rallies.
According to the “Passauer Neue Presse”, he was actually supposed to advertise a new wind farm in the Bavarian Chemical Triangle on January 8th. Instead, Aiwanger gave speeches at demos in Landshut, Karpfham, Schwandorf and Cham. In between, he celebrated at the Munich rally.
His appearances were only partly about the farmers’ specific concerns. Rather, Aiwanger gave speeches that were strongly reminiscent of his beer tent election campaign last year. The focus was always on sharp attacks on the traffic lights, which he accused, to specifically force farms to die out and rather give money to “illegal immigrants” and “good-for-nothings” than on those who are really in need.
Hubert Aiwanger, Free Voters leader and Bavaria’s economics minister, took part in many farmers’ demonstrations last week.
Unmistakable displeasure from the CSU
CSU members also like to work at the traffic lights. As far as Aiwanger wants But they don’t go anywhere in their rhetoric.
The displeasure in the CSU with its coalition partner is unmistakable. Secretary General Martin Huber called the Economics Minister to rather focus on the tasks in his department. CSU parliamentary group leader Klaus Holetschek made similar comments in the “Münchner Merkur” and called Aiwanger a “little problem bear”. Holetschek told the Augsburger Allgemeine that taking part in demonstrations was “not an economic concept.”
Agriculture Minister Michaela Kaniber made it clear with regard to Aiwanger: “Populism is not my thing.” The CSU honorary chairman Theo Waigel criticized BR-Sunday regulars’ table, Aiwanger’s “populist way of serving and promoting moods” is impossible.
Ensnaring farmers is worth it
In the state elections last October, the Free Voters did significantly better with 15.8 percent than five years before. Especially in the more rural Lower Bavaria, Aiwanger’s homeland: there, with 29.7 percent of the total vote, they were only two percentage points behind the CSU. In Middle Franconia, Söder’s homeland, the Free Voters, at 9.5 percent, were far behind the Christian Socialists (40.6 percent).
The fact that the Free Voters and their frontman Aiwanger had already wooed the farmers during the election campaign apparently paid off: 37 percent of Bavarian farmers wanted to vote for the party in the state elections. This is shown by an evaluation of the announced voting behavior by professional group, which was prepared by the Elections Research Group.
52 percent of farmers wanted to give their vote to the CSU. A significant decline for the Söder party: in the 2018 state elections, 66 percent of farmers said they wanted to vote for the CSU.
Aiwanger taunts the CSU
After the promotion in Bavaria, Aiwanger now also wants nationwide success for his Free Voters (FW). The declared goal: to enter the Bundestag in 2025 and become part of a bourgeois federal government. There is great concern in the CSU about losing valuable votes to the FW in the European elections in June.
Aiwanger is not letting the current CSU criticism sit. As economics minister and deputy prime minister, he must stand by the farmers. “Agriculture is a core element of economic policy.” And he teased the CSU: The Free Voters were perceived as the real representatives of the farmers’ interests.
A few days ago, the minister objected to demands from the CSU to demonstrate less. “They should do their job and not keep telling me where I can go.” He doesn’t need any tips from the CSU: “I go wherever the people call me.”