Does the Bavarian Deputy Prime Minister Hubert Aiwanger still have the confidence of his coalition partner and Prime Minister Markus Söder from the Free Voters? Does the CSU accept Aiwanger’s statements about an anti-Semitic leaflet that was found in his school bag in the 1987/88 school year? Is the CSU ready to continue governing with Aiwanger’s party until the state elections on October 8th and possibly beyond?
There are answers to these questions this Tuesday. The coalition committee has been meeting since the morning, followed by the cabinet. Söder had scheduled a special session, saying he had “convened” Aiwanger and the Free Voters. A press conference is scheduled for 12 p.m. the subsequent press conference will be broadcast live by Bayerischer Rundfunk.
The anti-Semitic hate leaflet was disgusting and disgusting, it was “the worst Nazi jargon,” said Söder. It’s not “just a boy’s prank or a youthful sin”. The mere suspicion harms the reputation of Bavaria and the reputation of the Bavarian Minister of Words.
The explanations that Aiwanger has given so far on the matter are not sufficient. He will be asked for a written clarification of the allegations that Aiwanger has agreed to answer 25 questions in this regard. He had also given his consent that any school files that might still exist would be made public.
The research of Süddeutsche Zeitung were not enough to justify Aiwanger’s dismissal. There should be no prejudice, but “all remaining doubts” would have to be cleared up.
Before reporting on the leaflet, Söder had always said that he wanted to continue the coalition with the Free Voters. On Monday, during an election campaign in Landshut, he emphasized again that he “clearly wanted to keep a middle-class coalition in Bavaria”. He is not aiming for a state government in which the Greens are involved. This is apparently also the attitude in large parts of the CSU. At the press conference, Söder again emphasized that cooperation with the Free Voters was “good”.
The research around the leaflet
On Saturday, Aiwanger had denied in writing that he had written an anti-Semitic leaflet during his school days that the Southgerman newspaper first reported on Friday evening. He “did not write the paper in question” and considered the content “disgusting and inhuman”.
However, the Free Voters boss admitted that “one or a few copies” 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.
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.”
The following 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”.
Before Aiwanger commented on the matter in writing on Saturday, he had always denied being connected to the leaflet in response to multiple inquiries. Until the first publication on Friday, the Southgerman newspaper contacted Aiwanger three times within eleven days. Among other things, the SZ confronted the minister with the find in the school bag and the punishment, based on the memories of several witnesses.
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 situation before the state election
A new state parliament will be elected in Bavaria on October 8th. The latest polls, which were all taken before the allegations against Aiwanger became known, indicate that the CSU and Free Voters could get a stable majority. In one of the Süddeutsche Zeitung in the voter survey commissioned by Forsa at the beginning of August, the CSU came up with 39 percent. The Free Voters would therefore be on par with the Greens at 14 percent, the AfD comes to 13, the SPD to nine percent. The FDP and the left would fail at the five percent hurdle.