Anti-Semitic pamphlet
Aiwanger: Paper not mine, but I know the author
08/26/2023 5:44 p.m
Six weeks before the state elections in Bavaria, Bavaria’s Deputy Prime Minister finds himself in the midst of a severe crisis. It is about an anti-Semitic pamphlet from his school days. Numerous politicians are vehemently demanding clarification. Aiwanger now explains that he is not the author, but someone else.
Bavaria’s Deputy Prime Minister Hubert Aiwanger has rejected allegations that he wrote an anti-Semitic leaflet as a student. “I did not write the paper in question and I consider the content to be disgusting and inhuman,” said the Free Voters chief through a spokesman in a written statement. “The author of the paper is known to me, he will explain himself.”
Aiwanger also said: “One or a few copies were found in my school bag when I was a student at the time. I was then summoned to the director. I was threatened with the police if I didn’t clarify the matter. My parents were not involved integrated. As a way out, I was offered to give a presentation. I accepted under pressure. That was the end of the matter for the school. Today I can no longer remember whether I made a statement or passed on individual copies. Even after 35 years I have completely distanced myself from the paper.”
Aiwanger had previously been asked for clarification from many quarters. There were “bad allegations in the room,” Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” that they had to be clarified and completely cleared up. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser from the SPD wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “Anyone who mocks the victims of Auschwitz must not bear any responsibility in our country.”
Many politicians are calling for clarification
As the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reports, the Burkhardt-Gymnasium in Mallersdorf-Pfaffenberg in Lower Bavaria is said to have taken part in a “German history” commemoration competition in the 1987/88 school year. have participated. In this context, the 52-year-old Aiwanger is said to have invented a kind of competition at the age of 17: “Who is the biggest traitor to the fatherland? Applicants could apply for an interview in the Dachau concentration camp,” the text is said to have read. Aiwanger told the “SZ” through a spokesman that he “didn’t produce anything like this” and would take legal action against this “smear campaign” if it were published.
Aiwanger was originally supposed to come to the big folk festival parade in Augsburg on Saturday afternoon. But he did not appear there. Before the publication of Aiwanger’s written statement, there were reactions to the allegations against him from many directions. So the pressure on the politician had increased.
Election on October 8th
SPD leader Lars Klingbeil said at a state party conference of the North Rhine-Westphalian SPD: “What kind of people are there in the Bavarian state government?” And added: “Such people are not responsible in this country.” Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann from the FDP wrote on X: “The accusation that someone is an anti-Semite weighs heavily. You should only raise it if you are sure of your case and the evidence is clear. If that is the case, one thing is clear: There is no place for anti-Semites in politics – neither in mandates nor in state offices!”
The presumption of innocence applies to Aiwanger, wrote the deputy CDU federal chairman Karin Prien on X: “The publication of the allegations against @HubertAiwanger and the timing weigh heavily and are explosive in several respects, six weeks before the Bavarian state elections.”
The federal government’s anti-Semitism commissioner, Felix Klein, told the “Bild am Sonntag”: “Should the allegations be true, Mr. Aiwanger is, in my view, as deputy prime minister of Bavaria and other offices, intolerable.” Christoph Heubner, Executive Vice President of the International Auschwitz Committee, demanded: “If Hubert Aiwanger has anything to do with this leaflet, then he must now clean up his story.”
A new state parliament will be elected in Bavaria on October 8th. The CSU had always stated that it wanted to continue the coalition with the Free Voters after the election. All surveys left almost no doubt that this will also be possible – with the free voters were at 11 to 14 percent. For both coalition partners, the allegations and the public debate are therefore absolutely inopportune. The CSU has governed the Free State since 2018 together with the Free Voters.
The Bavarian state parliament president Ilse Aigner from the CSU posted on X: “The allegations against @HubertAiwanger weigh heavily – only he himself can credibly distance himself from this disgusting, anti-Semitic pamphlet and should do so quickly.” The deputy chairman of the AfD parliamentary group, Gerd Mannes, called for Aiwanger’s resignation: “As economics minister, he will no longer be able to do his job justice.”
Aiwanger had already hit the headlines nationwide in June because of controversial statements at a rally in Erding. Among other things, he said there that the silent majority had to “take back democracy”. As so often before, he was accused of populism.
Aiwanger, the strong man of the Free Voters in Bavaria and also nationwide, likes to see himself as a representative of what he calls the “normal population”, of farmers and craftsmen. In beer tents and at other appearances, he regularly railed against the Greens and the traffic light government. He lets accusations of being a populist roll off his feet. He will not be silenced, he says. His stated goal is to keep potential AfD voters from voting for the AfD and to “lure” them to the Free Voters.