Aiwanger brother defends himself
“Leaflet was inhumane, not anti-Semitic”
October 6, 2023, 8:00 a.m
His leaflet was “crass” and “inhumane,” admits Helmut Aiwanger shortly before the Bavarian state elections. However, the brother of Free Voters leader Hubert Aiwanger does not want to recognize any anti-Semitic content. Voters seem to agree in election polls.
Two days before the Bavarian state elections, Hubert Aiwanger’s brother once again commented on the anti-Semitic leaflet that the Aiwanger brothers distributed at their school in the 1980s. “That was a blatant student prank,” says Helmut Aiwanger in an interview with the Funke newspapers, “although overall it would of course have been cheaper if this note had never existed.”
However, the brother of the Free Voters leader and deputy Bavarian Prime Minister does not consider the pamphlet to be anti-Semitic: “Of course the content of the leaflet is blatant and inhumane,” explains Aiwanger. “In my opinion it is not anti-Semitic. This description annoys me.” Lawyers come to a different assessment.
The leaflet was found more than 30 years ago in Hubert Aiwanger’s school bag, who also faced disciplinary measures at school for it. According to his own statements, the author was the older Aiwanger brother Helmut.
No political damage
The leaflet was made public in August through a report in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and became an issue in the Bavarian state election campaign. Hubert Aiwanger is the Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs and also deputy head of government in the Free State, which is governed by a coalition of the CSU and Free Voters.
Aiwanger came under massive pressure in the affair. He spoke of a targeted campaign against himself. CSU Prime Minister Markus Söder decided against Aiwanger’s dismissal from the cabinet. The German Press Council is currently reviewing several articles in the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” after the committee received 16 individual complaints against the newspaper’s reporting.
Politically, the affair did not harm Aiwanger and the Free Voters. Two days before the election, according to the current ZDF “Political Barometer”, the CSU is still clearly in the lead among voters. Prime Minister Söder’s party can hope for 37 percent of the vote on Sunday. This would roughly match the result of the 2018 state election (37.2 percent). The values of the free voters, which could reach 15 percent, are unchanged compared to the previous week. The opposition parties Green (16 percent), AfD (14 percent) and SPD (9 percent) can also hope to enter the Bavarian state parliament, while the FDP with 3 percent (minus 1) cannot.