CSU and Free Voters reject Aiwanger’s dismissal
Hubert Aiwanger, Economics Minister and State Chairman of the Free Voters in Bavaria, speaks at a demonstration against the traffic light government’s climate policy
Source: pa/dpa/Matthias Balk
With his speech at a rally in Erding, the Bavarian Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) caused outrage. The Greens had called for his dismissal. A heated argument breaks out in Parliament.
Nfter the controversial statements made by Bavaria’s Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) at a rally in Erding, the CSU and Free Voters rejected a dismissal demand by the opposition. On Wednesday evening, the coalition factions voted unanimously against a motion by the Greens in the state parliament, with which they had demanded Aiwanger’s expulsion – because of his “blunders that are incompatible with democratic principles”.
Aiwanger said on Saturday at a rally against the federal government’s heating law in front of around 13,000 people that people had to “take back democracy”. He was sharply criticized across parties for this sentence, which was reminiscent of the well-known AfD choice of words. The CSU had also reprimanded Aiwanger, publicly and internally in a cabinet meeting on Tuesday. In the state parliament, however, the coalition factions were now close together again – both want to continue their alliance after the election on October 8th.
Both in the debate about the application for dismissal in the evening and in a discussion lasting several hours about a government statement by Aiwanger in the afternoon, there were heated arguments and turbulent battles of words in the state parliament. Over some stretches, the speakers could hardly be understood due to constant heckling. Aiwanger did not repeat his much-criticized sentence again in the afternoon. But he also did not respond to the broad criticism of it, including from his own coalition partner, the CSU.
Green party leader Katharina Schulze accused Aiwanger of inciting people with his choice of words against parliamentary democracy. That is unworthy. The Free Voters boss thus corresponds to the textbook description of a pure right-wing populist and intellectual arsonist. As Prime Minister, Markus Söder is responsible for his cabinet – he must fire Aiwanger.
Söder, who had also been criticized for his own participation in the Erding rally, was not in the plenary session for Aiwanger’s government statement or during the two debates.
“It was wrong, it was shameful”
SPD parliamentary group leader Florian von Brunn called on Aiwanger to resign in his own words on Saturday: “If you still have a spark of decency, you should resign from your office yourself.” Aiwanger’s appearance was primitive, rowdy and the lowest level. “That was wrong, that was shameful, and that seriously damaged the reputation of the Free State of Bavaria.” FDP parliamentary group leader Martin Hagen, who was in Erding himself, criticized Aiwanger’s choice of words. Participating in rallies is the right thing to do.
Gerd Mannes (AfD) asked why an economics minister should resign if he had given a reasonable speech after four and a half years. Schulze saw this as confirmation of her previous harsh criticism: “If you call the spirits, then they are there.”
The parliamentary manager of the Free Voters, Fabian Mehring, defended Aiwanger: The criticism of the opposition was a “storm in a teacup”, a “political show” to distract from their own failure of the traffic lights in Berlin. And Mehring argued that the question should be asked whether, in terms of democratic theory, it is really legitimate to pursue politics against a large majority of the population.
The parliamentary director of the CSU, Tobias Reiß, accused the Greens of double standards – because they had no problem with left-wing extremists elsewhere and were blind in the left eye. But he also said that of course you don’t have to bring democracy back, “it’s not gone”. Reiß also said to everyone, including the opposition, that the choice of words should be “solid and sovereign”.
Aiwanger himself also hands out
In his long-planned government statement, Aiwanger launched a new all-out attack on the traffic light parties. The head of the Free Voters accused the SPD, Greens and FDP in the federal government, among other things, of a “deindustrialization policy”, misguided economic and energy policies and a “limited horizon”. Among other things, he renewed the demand for drastic tax cuts, in particular he called for an industrial electricity price of only four cents net. At the moment the taxes in Germany are far too high. The federal government is currently making money from the downfall of many economic sectors, Aiwanger criticized.
In return, Schulze called on the state government to finally put a clear focus on the expansion of renewable energies and on combating the increasing shortage of skilled workers in the country. FDP parliamentary group leader Hagen said that the federal government had done more for the economy and competitiveness in one year than the Bavarian Minister for Economic Affairs in an entire legislative period. “If something has led to de-industrialization, then that’s your energy policy,” said Hagen, recalling the long, bitter resistance of Free Voters and the CSU to new power lines.