In the first poll since the leafleting case involving Bavarian Deputy Prime Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) became known, his party made significant gains. In the survey published today by the INSA institute for the newspaper “Bild”, Free Voters registered an increase of four percentage points and reached 15 percent.
According to the survey, Prime Minister Markus Söder’s CSU is at 37 percent, down one point from the INSA survey from the end of July. The Greens also worsened by one point, to 14 percent. The party is now on the same level as the AfD.
The SPD lost two points and reached nine percent in the current poll. The FDP is at four percent and would therefore lose the opportunity to enter state parliament.
Election on October 8
A new state parliament will be elected in the German state of Bavaria on October 8. The election campaign is overshadowed by the Aiwanger leaflet case. According to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, he was suspected of having written and distributed an anti-Semitic leaflet when he was at school in the 1980s.
The leader of the Free Voters admitted that copies of the leaflet were found in his school backpack, but denied that he was the author. Söder, whose CSU forms a coalition with the Free Voters in the Free State, decided on Sunday to stand with Aiwanger despite criticism at national level. He also ruled out the possibility of seeking a coalition with the Greens after the elections.