Official secrets violated?
Aiwanger leaflet affair: investigations against teachers
October 26, 2023, 3:50 p.m
The leaflet affair really throws Hubert Aiwanger into a tailspin, and he is unable to clear up some of the allegations. But the Free Voters leader did not fall; he also sits in the next state government. The man who probably got the matter rolling is now being investigated.
After the leaflet affair involving Bavaria’s Deputy Prime Minister Hubert Aiwanger, the public prosecutor’s office is investigating a former teacher of the Free Voters leader. There is an initial suspicion of a violation of official and private secrets, said a spokesman for the Regensburg public prosecutor’s office. Basically, it is checked whether the man has committed a criminal offense through possible “unauthorized disclosure”.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, the proceedings have been running since the beginning of September. The investigation was initiated after various reports as a result of reporting in connection with the leaflet affair. Aiwanger came under pressure in the course of the affair a few weeks before the state elections after the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reported that an anti-Semitic leaflet had been found at his school. Several media outlets reported that a former teacher was said to have passed on the letter. Classmates also subsequently incriminated Aiwanger and associated him with right-wing extremism.
Aiwanger’s brother later said that he had written the leaflet. After Aiwanger answered a list of questions and apologized, Prime Minister Markus Söder decided not to dismiss him as minister. The two have now sealed a new edition of their coalition and will continue to govern Bavaria.
Accusations never completely cleared up
Aiwanger was criticized a lot for his answers to the list of questions – when he gave them, he couldn’t or didn’t want to remember a lot of them. He also repeatedly portrayed himself as the victim of a smear campaign without providing any evidence. This also caused anger among the coalition partner CSU.
Former CSU leader Erwin Huber said: “You don’t even acknowledge that there are allegations. You simply deny it. You threaten to sue,” said Huber. “Secondly: You make yourself a victim. That has similarities with Trumpism. I hope that it doesn’t become a model in German politics.”
The CSU vice-chairman Manfred Weber warned against trivialization. Weber told the “Tagesspiegel” that he had “difficulty with the concept of ‘youthful sin’ in view of Nazi Germany’s most serious crimes.” Aiwanger made things “a bit easy” for himself with his argument, criticized Weber.