Bavaria: Leaflet affair: Söder has to decide

In the affair of an anti-Semitic leaflet, it is eagerly awaited whether Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) will dismiss his deputy Hubert Aiwanger.

The Free Voters chairman answered Söder’s list of questions in writing – according to information from CSU circles on Saturday, the answers are now being evaluated “at leisure”. Neither the content of the questions nor the answers are known. According to the Bavarian state constitution, the prime minister can dismiss his ministers with the approval of the state parliament.

Aiwanger himself sees “no reason at all for resignation or dismissal,” as he told “Bild am Sonntag”. The 52-year-old called for an end to the “witch hunt”. He is expected today for appointments in Bavaria, Söder gives a summer interview to ZDF.

Aiwanger wants the coalition to continue

During an appearance on Saturday in the Hessian state election campaign, Aiwanger did not answer any questions about the leaflet affair. “There’s just something being shot out of it again,” he said after his performance. In Hesse, as in Bavaria, a new state parliament will be elected on October 8th.

The “Bild am Sonntag” said Aiwanger that he would like to continue the coalition with the CSU: “I wish that after the elections there can be a continuation of the coalition between us and the CSU, but of course that depends on the election result.” His voters are outraged by the “campaign”.

At the event in Hesse, Aiwanger received encouragement from the Free Voters boss there, Engin Eroglu. Even if the allegations against the federal party leader and Bavarian government deputy that have been circulating for a week are “all bad”, there is “not any proof” of this, said Eroglu near Wetter in northern Hesse. Aiwanger “assured credibly” that he did not write the leaflet and was “not the cause of this campaign”.

More allegations are made

Aiwanger had already denied last Saturday that he had written the anti-Semitic leaflet that the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reported on. At the same time, he admitted that “one or a few copies” were found in his school bag. Shortly thereafter, his older brother said he was the author. Further allegations were made against Aiwanger himself over the course of the week. He apologized Thursday afternoon.

The director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora memorials, Jens-Christian Wagner, sharply criticized Aiwanger’s handling of the allegations. Aiwanger should have apologized and shown credible insight, he told ARD. “If the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora memorials were in Bavaria, I would not allow Aiwanger to hold memorial speeches here.”

Thanks to Aiwanger’s numerous defenders, instead of talking about the pamphlet glorifying the Holocaust, only an alleged smear campaign is being discussed. “Climate change in the politics of remembrance is characterized by a decrease in historical awareness and historical sensitivity to the Nazi crimes,” Wagner warned.

reactions from politics

Green politician Anton Hofreiter said Aiwanger was trying to capitalize on his own misconduct. “That is deeply indecent. If Söder lets it go and plays for time, he does not live up to his responsibility as Prime Minister,” he told the newspapers of the Funke media group.

The SPD politician Ralf Stegner made a similar statement. It no longer matters whether Aiwanger wrote the “disgusting anti-Semitic” leaflet himself or just distributed it. “His ‘apology’ – which wasn’t one – and his victim pose are unbearable,” he wrote on Saturday on Platform X, previously known as Twitter.

“It’s not about “youthful sins” that justify comparisons with young people who have left, this shows a character and political attitude that is incompatible with a state office – “which is not trivial, especially in times of threats to our democracy,” wrote Stegner.

Former SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel had previously backed Aiwanger. “Why should young neo-Nazis get out of the right-wing extremist scene when they see Hubert Aiwanger as an example, that 35 years later you are still publicly branded for the madness of your own youth?” Gabriel wrote on Friday on X.