Hubert Aiwanger in the criticism: “Talk like the AfD”

Free voters
“Aiwanger talks like the AfD”: Bavaria’s Deputy Prime Minister wants to “bring democracy back”

In a speech, Bavaria’s Deputy Prime Minister Hubert Aiwanger questioned the legitimacy of the federal government. According to many critics, he has now finally overstepped the mark.

The deputy Bavarian Prime Minister and Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) has been criticized for his appearance at a demonstration in Erding near Munich last weekend.

During protests against the federal government’s heating policy, the 52-year-old said, among other things: “Now the point has been reached where the silent vast majority of this country must finally take back democracy and say to those in Berlin: ‘You must have screwed it open up there.’ “We want to bring back our democracy. We want politicians to implement what the majority of citizens want. And the majority of citizens want dad and mom to exist, that we can eat meat, that we can drive cars, that we are allowed to heat houses, that we are also allowed to go on vacation (…)” Among other things, the free voter politician Alexander Hold distributed a recording of the appearance on social media:

According to critics, there is hardly any difference to the AfD’s choice of words. From a “new low in the political discourse”, the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” wrote in a comment that Aiwanger had crossed a red line. The Bavarian state parliament president Ilse Aigner (CSU) also commented on the newspaper. “One can consider the decisions made by the traffic lights to be right or wrong. But the decisions were made democratically. Even a deputy prime minister and chairman of a party with government responsibility shouldn’t question that.” Federal Building Minister Klara Geywitz spoke of “populism” on RTL and ntv. CDU veteran Ruprecht Polenz wrote on Twitter: “Aiwanger from the Free Voters talks like the AfD.”

Hubert Aiwanger in the criticism

In fact, Aiwanger heated up the atmosphere at the event in Erding with around 13,000 people with untruths. He denied the legitimacy of the government, which was supported by a majority in the German Bundestag – and painted specters of holiday, car driving or meat bans on the wall in order to fuel a culture war. In fact, such measures are neither part of the federal government’s plans nor enforceable. “Really dangerous,” said Ricarda Lang, leader of the Greens, on Bavarian radio about the appearance of the economics minister.

Aiwanger’s boss, Bavaria’s CSU Prime Minister Markus Söder, appeared at the same demonstration. He will not have missed the words of his deputy – he lets him do it again. Because Aiwanger has often been noticed by cross shots in the Bavarian coalition, for example torpedoed the corona policy of his own state government – ​​without there being any consequences.

A new state parliament will be elected in the Free State on October 8th. According to current polls, the currently governing coalition can hope for a continuation of the alliance. The election campaign – as the demonstration in Erding showed – has already begun.

Sources: “Sueddeutsche Zeitung” (1), Süddeutsche Zeitung (2), RTL/n-tv, Bavarian radio, Rupert Polenz, “wahlrecht.de”DPA news agency