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Leaflet affair: Charlotte Knobloch rejects Aiwanger’s apology

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leaflet affair
Charlotte Knobloch rejects Aiwanger’s apology

Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Munich Jewish Community. photo

© Sven Hoppe/dpa

Charlotte Knobloch rejects an apology. But sacking the Bavarian Economics Minister after the leaflet affair would have caused catastrophic damage, in her opinion.

Charlotte Knobloch, President of the Jewish community in Munich and Upper Bavaria, says she rejected Hubert Aiwanger’s apology. On Deutschlandfunk she said on Monday that the Free Voters chairman had contacted her. “I made my opinion of him, of his person, very clear. I didn’t accept the apology.” But Knobloch also said that she accepted Prime Minister Markus Söder’s (CSU) decision to leave Aiwanger in office.

She said the allegations surrounding an anti-Semitic leaflet from Aiwanger’s school days were “terrible words”. “That this is like a catastrophe for a person who has as much responsibility as a vice president of a state. That is usually unacceptable.” Söder made a political decision, “and with disgust”. In this respect, she stands behind the Prime Minister.

Aiwanger would have taken advantage of a dismissal during the election campaign and would probably have been successful, she said. “And that would have been the even greater catastrophe.” With a view to the present and the future, Söder made the right decision. “Aiwanger is Aiwanger and we will not raise him and we will not change him either.”

Söder announced on Sunday that he would leave Aiwanger in office despite the leaflet affair and that he wanted to continue the coalition with the Free Voters after the state elections on October 8th. There was a lot of criticism from state and federal politicians. Among other things, Söder was accused of having acted out of “political calculation” in view of the upcoming election.