The president of Bavaria, the Christian socialist Markus Söder, announced this Sunday that he is keeping in office the vice president, Hubert Aiwanger, regional leader of the Free Electors (FW) party, who for days has been the protagonist of a political scandal in Germany for his connection with a pamphlet Nazi and anti-Semite of the late eighties. Söder had summoned Aiwanger to respond in writing to 25 questions about it, which he did on Saturday.
In a statement to reporters in Munich, Söder said Aiwanger “has clearly apologized, clearly distanced himself,” that there is so far no evidence that he wrote “the disgusting” pamphlet in his youth, and that it all happened 35 years ago. . Since then, argued the president of Bavaria, Hubert Aiwanger, “nothing comparable” has happened, and removing him now from his positions in the regional government – he is vice president and Minister of Economy – would therefore be “disproportionate.”
Appointment with the polls
Bavaria holds elections on October 8 and the controversy over the Nazi pamphlet, with echoes throughout Germany, has shaken the electoral campaign
Aiwanger’s party, Free Electors (FW, for its acronym in German), has been a junior partner of the Christian Social CSU in the Bavarian Government since 2018. Bavaria holds elections on October 8 and the controversy over the Nazi pamphlet, with echoes throughout Germany, shook the election campaign. Markus Söder had said on several occasions that he aspires to renew the government pact with FW. The latest polls in Bavaria give the CSU 39% (that is, again without an absolute majority), followed by the Greens (14%), Free Electors (12%) and the Social Democratic Party (9%).
The president of Bavaria, Markus Söder, at the appearance in Munich on September 3 in which he announced that he is keeping Aiwanger in the Executive
The brochure, a typewritten flyer whose existence was revealed on Saturday, August 26, by the Munich newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, pretends to be a contest to choose the “greatest traitor to the country” and promises prizes, mocking concentration camps and the Holocaust. Supposed contestants are encouraged to show up “at the Dachau concentration camp for a job interview,” to compete for prizes like “a free flight through the chimneys of Auschwitz” or “a stay forever in a mass grave.” ”, among other similar formulations.
Hubert Aiwanger, 52, denies being the author of the text, which was written in 1987, when he was 17 years old, and his older brother has claimed authorship. But he does admit that a copy of the pamphlet was found in his school bag and that the director of the institute punished him by giving him a history project on the Third Reich. Söder said that, in addition to apologies, “it is important that Hubert Aiwanger works to regain lost trust,” by holding talks with leaders of the Bavarian Jewish community.
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