Only at the first impression does Markus Söder strike a milder tone: He is “a little worried” about Hubert Aiwanger, said Söder on Sunday in the ZDF summer interview. Just a little? On Friday, Söder had refrained from such relativization: He was “worried about him”, period.
“Same choice of words as Weidel”
It would be wrong to conclude from this that the vaccination dispute in the Bavarian coalition is becoming less intense. Söder said on ZDF that his economics minister used the same wording as Alice Weidel, the top candidate of the AfD. Like Aiwanger, Weidel has not yet been vaccinated by his own account.
In an interview she criticized “that healthy unvaccinated people are discriminated against”. Aiwanger, on the other hand, had recently warned against a “hunt” for unvaccinated people and against an “apartheid discussion”. He found this term “completely impossible,” said Söder on ZDF. In general, he is disturbed by the choice of words of his coalition partner.
With this, Söder also means the reference to “massive vaccination side effects”, which Aiwanger had mentioned in an interview. He referred to his “personal environment”. What he meant by “massive” was left open. It shouldn’t be pain at the injection site. Fever maybe: According to the Robert Koch Institute, fever symptoms occur in up to four percent of cases after the first dose of Biontech and Moderna, and in up to 16 percent after the second dose.
Proximity to lateral thinkers?
However, as I said, it is unclear whether it is these numbers that take the spit out of Aiwanger. In the eyes of the Prime Minister and CSU boss, Aiwanger’s entire argumentation is obviously dubious and politically sensitive: “My concern is that he will maneuver into a corner from which he can no longer get out himself.” One could not “fish on any edge” without consequences, in the end the people chose “real lateral thinkers”. CSU General Secretary Blume and Regional Group Leader Dobrindt also recently put Aiwanger near unconventional thinkers.
The free voter boss himself protests against this accusation. In the evening he emphasized to the German press agency: “It is outrageous to want to label myself as a ‘lateral thinker’ because I am against mandatory vaccination and demand more sensitivity when it comes to vaccinating under 12-year-olds, which Stiko has done so far does not recommend. “
Criticism from the economy
Aiwanger claims to tie the skeptics of the vaccination to the middle class through his demonstrative doubts about vaccination. Whether Aiwanger is really about saving the middle, in which he competes with the CSU, remains to be seen. The fact is that as the top candidate in the federal election, he is fighting for every vote for the free voters. We’ll see if he’s successful. In any case, he is currently reaping resentment from the trade associations for which he is responsible as minister.
The Association of Bavarian Business (vbw) criticized Aiwanger’s vaccination skepticism as “counterproductive”. The President of the Hotel and Restaurant Association, Angela Inselkammer, recently urged Aiwanger to get immunized. It is “difficult if role models do not get vaccinated, unless they cannot for health reasons”.
Aiwanger has not yet justified his vaccination skepticism with reference to his health. All he says is that he is “not a vaccination euphoric” – and otherwise insists that it is a private matter.
Even if the dispute, as Söder now admits, “makes cooperation more difficult”: He does not want to fire Aiwanger. In the cabinet he continues to work “very well” with the FW boss, affirmed the Prime Minister on ZDF. Perhaps the summer break, which the Bavarian government has been on for a few days, will help him.
Video: Political scientist on the vaccination dispute in the Bavarian coalition