Victim of a “witch hunt”
Aiwanger sees no reason to resign
09/02/2023, 2:25 p.m
The questionnaire has been answered. Hubert Aiwanger’s political fate is now in the hands of Bavaria’s Prime Minister Söder. The Free Voters boss sees himself as a victim of a campaign and warns against dismissing him because of the leaflet affair.
The Free Voters boss Hubert Aiwanger sees himself in the leaflet affair as a victim of a witch hunt. He apologized for his mistakes, he told “Bild am Sonntag”. He sees no reason to give up his position as Economics Minister in the Bavarian state government. “Unless this witch hunt stops and succeeds, no one will go into politics or any other leadership position for fear that their past will be screened for every bad joke.”
Aiwanger apologized on Thursday for his handling of the affair. He rejected the accusation that he had written an anti-Semitic leaflet at his school when he was 17. On Friday, the politician answered the list of questions asked by Prime Minister Markus Söder. The answers would now be evaluated “in peace”, it said on Saturday morning from CSU circles. “I don’t know what the Prime Minister’s assessment is, but based on my answers I see no reason at all for resignation or dismissal,” Aiwanger told the newspaper.
The 52-year-old also stated that he wanted to continue the coalition with the CSU after the state elections on October 8th. “The indignation about this campaign” is great among his voters. As a consequence of the affair surrounding the anti-Semitic flyer from his school days, Aiwanger demanded: “In the future, school must again become a protected space where students can develop without being destroyed decades later for real mistakes or mistakes that are alleged anonymously.”
The Hessian state chairman of the Free Voters, Engin Eroglu, meanwhile stood behind his federal party leader. Even if the allegations against Aiwanger that have been circulating for a week are “all bad”, there is “not any proof” of this, said Eroglu near Wetter (Marburg-Biedenkopf district) before the start of an event for the Hessian state elections, which will also take place on October 8th . Aiwanger “assured credibly” that he did not write the leaflet and was “not the cause of this campaign”.