In the affair about an anti-Semitic leaflet, Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) is initially refraining from personal consequences. His deputy, Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (free voters), should remain in office, Söder said at a press conference scheduled at short notice. A dismissal would be “not proportionate”.
Söder spoke of a “deliberation process” that he did not take the decision lightly, wanted to make it “fair” and “orderly” and “not just according to media reports”. Aiwanger made serious mistakes in his youth, said Söder, but he credibly distanced himself from them and apologized. In addition, there is no proof that Aiwanger created or distributed the leaflet – the minister had his word against it.
Since the allegations became public last week, “nothing comparable” has been added, said Söder. However, a number of Aiwanger’s classmates had commented on his alleged right-wing extremist views in the past few days. He is also said to have shown Hitler salutes and made anti-Jewish jokes. At the same time, Söder emphasized that the events were 35 years ago. “No one is the same today as they were when they were 15.”
Söder wants to continue governing with the free voters and excludes black and green
Aiwanger had given answers to a questionnaire on Friday evening and, according to Söder, had a long conversation on Saturday evening. Söder also criticized his deputy: not all questions were answered satisfactorily. There was little that was new, and Aiwanger no longer remembered much. “Unfortunately” his crisis management was not good, said Söder. There can therefore be no such thing as a “sponge over it”. “Hence my serious and well-intentioned advice: Even if all this is a long time ago, it is important to show remorse and humility,” said Söder. After the press conference, the State Chancellery published the questionnaire and the answers. He wants to ensure transparency with this, said Söder.
At a simultaneous beer tent appearance in the Munich district, Aiwanger repeated his accusation that the allegations against him were part of a “smear campaign” to weaken the Free Voters. “It was a dirty mess.” In fact, his party has now been strengthened. “We have a clean conscience.”
By sticking to Aiwanger, Söder also wants to continue governing with the free voters. “We will be able to continue the middle-class coalition in Bavaria,” he said on Sunday. The CSU boss emphasized: “There will definitely be no black and green in Bavaria.” Offers by the opposition for another governing coalition “are in vain,” he said. The SPD, for example, had signaled that it would tolerate a CSU minority government if Söder wanted to terminate the coalition with the FW.
The Leaflet Affair
The background is the events surrounding an anti-Semitic leaflet that appeared at Aiwanger’s former school in Lower Bavaria in 1987/1988 and in which the victims of the Holocaust are mocked.
Aiwanger has repeatedly denied authoring the leaflet found in his school bag 36 years ago. He did the same on Thursday when he spoke publicly again. The Free Voters boss admitted mistakes, but did not speak explicitly of resignation. “I deeply regret if I have hurt feelings through my response to the pamphlet in question or other allegations against me from my youth,” he said.
Statements had appeared “that give the impression that I had taken a misanthropic path as a teenager”. As a “youngster he also made mistakes” and he apologized to the victims of the Nazi regime and to “everyone involved in the valuable work of remembrance”.
At the same time, Aiwanger emphasized that he sees himself as a victim of a political campaign. “I was never an anti-Semite, I was never a misanthrope,” he said. A negative image has been drawn of him in the past few days. The politician closed the statement with the words: “That’s not me, that’s not Hubert Aiwanger.”
Söder’s 25 questions to Aiwanger
Two days earlier, Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder – after a crisis meeting of the governing coalition in Bavaria – emphasized that Aiwanger’s previous statements on the matter were not sufficient. The leaflet was “disgusting and disgusting”, it was “the worst Nazi jargon” and not “a stupid boy prank or a mere youthful sin”. The mere suspicion would damage Bavaria’s reputation and the personal credibility of the Bavarian Economics Minister.
However, based on the information available so far, a dismissal is not justified, it would be “excessive,” said Söder. The Economics Minister must have the opportunity to completely dispel the allegations against him. However, no new allegations should be added. Söder and the CSU asked Aiwanger to answer 25 questions related to the leaflet. Aiwanger promised to answer them “promptly” – and sent the answers to the State Chancellery on Friday.
The SZ research around the flyer
Last Friday had the Southgerman newspaper first reported on the anti-Semitic leaflet. Previously, she had confronted Aiwanger several times with the allegations and asked for a statement, as stipulated in the rules for reporting suspicions. The SZ not only asked whether the Free Voters boss was the author of the flyer when he was at school, but also specifically confronted him with the find in his school bag and the testimony of several witnesses that he was punished for it at the time.
Aiwanger has denied all inquiries prior to reporting that he was connected to the leaflet and threatened legal consequences in the event of a report.
Reactions to the SZ publications
On Saturday, one day after the first SZ reports, Aiwanger finally admitted that “one or a few copies” of the leaflet were found in his school bag at the time. He was also punished for it at school. However, that was wrong. The true author of the paper is known to him and will explain himself shortly. He considers the content of the pamphlet to be “disgusting and inhuman”.
An hour later, Aiwanger’s brother Helmut got in touch and acknowledged himself as the author. To justify the fact that he had written the leaflet, he said in the newspapers of the Bayern media group: “I was totally angry at the time because I had failed at school.”
On Monday, the minister’s brother spoke again. This time it was about Hubert Aiwanger’s behavior at that time. When asked why he had the leaflets in his school bag, Helmut Aiwanger said his brother Hubert might have collected the leaflets again at the time in order to “de-escalate”.
A handwriting report commissioned by the SZ came to the conclusion that Aiwanger’s thesis and the incriminating flyer “were very likely written on one and the same typewriter”.
Why the leaflet appeared now
There are also indications that the matter has not just surfaced again after 35 years, but that the leaflet in Aiwanger’s environment has already been an issue twice in the past – well before the SZ publication.
As early as 2008, the year when the Free Voters moved into the Bavarian state parliament for the first time, a member of parliament is said to have scouted out on behalf of Aiwanger whether there was still trouble to be feared from the story. She is said to have visited a former teacher who taught at the Burkhart-Gymnasium Mallersdorf-Pfaffenberg, where the Aiwanger brothers went to school at the time. Neither the deputy nor Aiwanger comment on this. The deputy is said to have recently asked a second time.
The teacher declared in 2008 that he was assuming a “sinful act of youth” and saw no reason to make the disciplinary measure against Hubert Aiwanger public. However, he changed his mind after Aiwanger’s speech against the heating law in Erding in June. At that time, the minister demanded that the “large silent majority” had to “take democracy back”. According to the teacher, this speech persuaded him to no longer remain silent about the events surrounding the leaflet. The man is one of several sources that unanimously confirm the research of the SZ.
The BR Magazine “Report Munich” quoted a former classmate of Aiwanger in a report, who openly identified himself and testified that Aiwanger repeatedly “gave a Hitler salute” at school, imitated Hitler speeches and made jokes about Jews. Aiwanger rejected the allegations.