A political bombshell has exploded in Germany less than six weeks before state elections in the wealthy state of Bavaria, the country’s second most populous state. Markus Söder – the charismatic Bavarian President and leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Christian Democrats’ sister party to the CDU – is facing an unexpected crisis that touches a very sensitive nerve in the country responsible for the Shoah. Its vice president and economics minister Hubert Aiwanger, chairman of the “Free Voters” party, is accused of anti-Semitism. His position and thus the agreement between both parties to continue to govern together as they have since 2018 is hanging by a thread.
A pamphlet written in the 1987-88 academic year, when Aiwanger was 17 and studying at the institute more than 35 years ago, has put Söder’s main ally on notice to stay in power and possibly run for office. Conservative candidate for chancellor in the next federal election in 2025. As the Münchner Süddeutsche Zeitung revealed at the weekend, Aiwanger’s teachers found a typewritten sheet with anti-Semitic content and invocations of National Socialism in his backpack. The 52-year-old politician denied authorship, initially in writing and this Thursday in a short appearance without questions in front of the media. He asserts that there is a “political campaign” against him to remove him from power. There is no talk of a resignation.
In Bavaria, Aiwanger is chairman of the “Free Voters” party, with which Söder has governed in a relatively peaceful coalition since the last elections (new elections take place in the German federal states every five years). It is a formation that is further to the right than the CSU, a sister party of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which only appears in Bavaria and has ruled this region continuously for more than six decades. Aiwanger was not known to have expressed anti-Semitic statements or ideas, but he had more than once approached the typical rhetoric of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), with populist and nationalist phrases such as “restoring our country.” ”
The defendant himself described the contents of the brochure as “disgusting,” which is about a fictitious competition to find out who is “the biggest traitor.” The first prize for the winner is “a free flight down the chimney of Auschwitz,” a macabre reference to the Nazi death camp where more than a million people died, the vast majority of them Jews. The text, some copies of which apparently survive – the newspaper claims to have accessed one – encourages candidates to appear “for an interview at the Dachau concentration camp.” Dachau, a few kilometers northwest of Munich, is another unfortunate camp where the Nazis committed genocide.
Hitler’s speeches in front of the mirror
“I distance myself from the content. “I was never anti-Semitic and never hated people,” Aiwanger told the press on Thursday. “I don’t remember giving the Hitler salute or rehearsing Hitler’s speeches in front of the mirror,” he added, adding that witnesses quoted by the press, former colleagues of his, also accused him of other behaviors. The Süddeutsche Zeitung also reported that the CSU had known since at least 2008 that there were allegations of anti-Semitism against Aiwanger. This year they came to light at a meeting of Burkhart Institute alumni in the town of Mallersdor-Pfaffenberg, and a member of the CSU took note and alerted the party. The Free Voters had just moved into the state parliament, where Aiwanger held a mandate for the first time. His older brother Helmut claims that he wrote the text, but there are analyzes in the media by experts who claim that the same typewriter was used as Hubert’s dissertation.
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The leader of this minority party, which is crucial for Bavaria’s ability to govern, has apologized and regretted that his youthful behavior had “hurt feelings”. However, he is not thinking about resigning. It has to be Söder who fires him, which is a given for many analysts in Munich. When will it happen? When it suits you best, they respond to themselves.
The Bavarian Prime Minister asked his number two in the government for explanations and asked for written answers to a questionnaire with 25 questions, but he did not set a deadline. This gives sufficient scope to decide how to proceed before the elections, which will take place on October 8th, get even closer.
According to the latest polls, the Free Voters received around 13 to 14 percent of the vote before the scandal broke out. Söder has assured that he wants to repeat the coalition, partly because it would be difficult for him to reach an agreement with the Greens, the other party that would allow him to join. Many of his most conservative voters are also afraid of environmentalists who they consider too left-wing and would punish an alliance with them. The conservative CSU would therefore face a difficult time if Aiwanger’s party collapsed in October. Even though Söder’s party has an overwhelming majority in voting intention (39%), it is far from the absolute majority and its historical numbers, which are well over 50%. The Greens could reach 14%; the far-right AfD, 13%; the Social Democrats of the SPD, 9%; and the Liberals of the FDP 4% (a percentage that would exclude them from the chamber).
The elections in Bavaria will keep the rest of the country on tenterhooks, which is going through a difficult political phase: the three-party party led by the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz is in low popularity hours, while the AfD, according to polls, would reach more than 20% of the vote if There would be federal elections (basically planned for 2025). Next year will see three important elections in the eastern states, where the far right has a larger voter base and democratic parties, particularly the center-right CDU and CSU, are considering how to respond to the challenge. It remains to be seen whether they will slide down the slope of right-wing populism or whether they will continue to look to the center, the container that has made so many elections possible for Angela Merkel.
The Aiwanger case has outraged the political class, which has asked both those involved and Söder for explanations. Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his economics and climate ministers Robert Habeck (Greens) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (Liberals) condemned the contents of the brochure and called for immediate clarification at a press conference on Wednesday at Meseberg Castle, 70 kilometers north of Berlin, where they met. “There must be no place for anti-Semitism in Germany,” said Lindner. Other SPD officials called for Aiwanger to resign or for Söder to be fired as soon as possible and criticized his attempt to portray himself as a victim. During his appearance on Thursday, he said: “I have the impression that they want to finish me off politically and personally.”
“A responsible way to deal with the legacy of the worst crime the Germans have ever committed would be to proactively and comprehensively clarify their own role in the creation and distribution of this Jew-hating pamphlet,” said Felix Klein, German anti-Jewish commissioner, added this Friday. Anti-Semitism.
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