Thursday, August 5th, 2021
Large part as a waiver donation
Aiwanger donated 377,000 euros to free voters
The head of the Free Voters in Bavaria is a contentious politician. But he also seems to be a great patron. According to the statement of accounts, he is said to have donated considerable sums to his party – mainly in the form of donations. The form of donation is under criticism.
According to a report, the largest donor by far from the Free Voters is their party chairman Hubert Aiwanger. He had donated more than 377,000 euros to the party in the past ten years, reported the “Spiegel”, citing the accounts of the free voters.
At the request of the magazine, the party announced that some of the donations were so-called waiver donations. This included travel expenses, which Aiwanger did not reimburse. “Spiegel” reported on the party did not provide any information about the amount of the donations.
Aiwanger only commented on benefits from 2013 through a spokesman. At that time he left the party with donations of 32,594.70 euros. These resulted from the “waiver of travel expenses” such as “mileage allowance, flights, hotel accommodation” as well as from the “waiver of loan interest”, which had accrued through a private loan to the party. The spokesman did not provide any information on the amount of the loan or the interest rate.
Schäuble speaks of the risk of abuse
Waiver donations have often called the Bundestag administration on the plan, as the “Spiegel” emphasized. It was only in June that Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble pointed out the “dangers of misuse” of such benefits. With the help of unlawful or bogus expense allowances, parties could artificially inflate their donations and thus receive higher subsidies from state party funding.
Free voter boss Aiwanger, who is also Vice-Prime Minister and State Minister for Economic Affairs in Bavaria, is currently under criticism for his negative attitude towards corona vaccination. Most recently, he justified his view with reports of massive side effects, including in his circle of acquaintances, without going into detail.
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