Gillamoos: In the beer tent – Merz, Aiwanger and Klingbeil at the Gillamoos

Verbal attacks on political opponents – and renewed debates about the leaflet affair: one day after Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) decided to leave his deputy Hubert Aiwanger (free voters) in office, the political morning pint at the Gillamoos folk festival was held in Lower Bavaria it was all about the allegations. However, Aiwanger did not even address the topic in his acclaimed speech on Monday. A few weeks before the Bavarian state elections on October 8, he primarily attacked the traffic light parties in Berlin.

Meanwhile, CDU leader Friedrich Merz praised Söder for dealing with the leaflet affair. He had had a damn difficult task in the past few days, and he solved it brilliantly, said Merz at the joint beer tent appearance with Söder in Abensberg: “Very good, it was right to do it that way.” Söder, however, was silent in his speech on the Aiwanger case.

Söder had announced his decision on Sunday to leave Aiwanger in office despite the allegations and an anti-Semitic leaflet from school days.

Aiwanger sees democracy “in great danger”

Aiwanger himself warned of a political split in the country. “This country is currently politically deeply divided to the point of being unable to govern,” said the Bavarian Economics Minister. As an example, he cited surveys in eastern Germany, in which “fringe parties” received more than 50 percent of the votes. “Then democracy is in grave danger,” said Aiwanger. His party therefore wants to make “an offer of sensible politics” to voters in the center.

Merz and Söder also attacked the traffic light government in sharp words in their speeches halfway through the legislative period. “We are determined to do better than this government in two years at the latest,” said Merz. Germany deserves a better government. “We have a shortage of skilled workers primarily in the federal government – and not among the engineers in Germany.” Merz accused the SPD, Greens and FDP, among other things, of making serious mistakes in energy and migration policy. He criticized the shutdown of three functioning nuclear power plants as “stupidity” and “nonsense”.

Söder said: “The Hampel traffic light is the worst government that Germany has ever had.” There is “back and forth week after week,” he said. After the 2025 federal election, the Union will replace the traffic light, Söder predicted optimistically. “The traffic light will no longer be successful as a government in 2025. We will replace it together.”

Aiwanger affair only with SPD and Greens topic

The leaflet affair played a role above all in the SPD and the Greens. Aiwanger behaves indecently, criticized SPD federal leader Lars Klingbeil. The political discourse would be shifted, “because decency is disappearing from politics,” he said. He accused Söder of selfishness: “He only looks at himself, but not at this state,” said Klingbeil.

“The mere appearance of anti-Semitism in the state government damages the motivation for our actions,” said the top candidate of the Bavarian Greens, Ludwig Hartmann. “Populism is the enemy of our democracy.”

Aiwanger left the issue of the leaflet affair to other representatives of his party. The parliamentary manager, Fabian Mehring, described the allegations as a campaign “with the aim of paving the way for traffic lights”. The opposition “wanted to drag the Vice Prime Minister into the dirt for tactical reasons”.

The Gillamoos is a fun fair with a folk festival that always takes place at the beginning of September. The event in the district of Kelheim has a tradition going back more than 700 years and is known nationwide for the political speeches on the last day of the festival.