Conservative politician Hubert Aiwanger, leader of the Free Voters of Bavaria (Freie Wähler Bayern) party, believes himself the victim of a smear campaign launched against him by the left-leaning media just a month before Bavarian state elections. The attack could destroy the current conservative government’s popularity, and force the Greens into power. “If our party would be polling under 10%, there would be no reports of a scandal,” Aiwanger told German publication Die Welt on Thursday, August 31st.
The 52-year-old politician—leader of the Free Voters since 2006 and Deputy Prime Minister of Bavaria since 2018—has come under fire following a report by Süddeutsche Zeitung last week. The paper claimed that as a 17-year-old, Aiwanger wrote and distributed a pamphlet in school that made fun of the Holocaust. Aiwanger issued a statement saying he had not written the flyer and that the person who had done so, whose name he knew, would come forward of his own accord. “I did not write the paper in question and consider the content disgusting and inhumane,” Aiwanger added, also saying that a few copies of the pamphlet were found in his school bag. His brother, Helmut, eventually claimed responsibility, saying his actions were those of a frustrated teenager. He has expressed regret for what he had done.
Several media outlets, however, were not satisfied with the conclusion of the story and have since published new articles about Hubert Aiwanger. Some of his former classmates have anonymously accused him of harbouring far-right sentiments. One of them told local public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk that Aiwanger made antisemitic jokes following a class trip to a former Nazi concentration camp; another told public broadcaster ARD that Aiwanger at times made the Hitler salute when entering classrooms in high school and made offensive jokes about Jewish people. “It’s becoming more and more absurd. Another person claimed that I had a copy of Mein Kampf [Adolf Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto] in my school bag. Who comes up with such nonsense!?” Aiwanger tweeted on Wednesday.
The source of anger directed at the politician seems to be his former school teacher, Franz Graf, who apparently kept some copies of the offensive pamphlet and talked to his former pupils about using them to hurt Aiwanger’s career, while also urging them to make public accusations against the politician, reports Tichys Einblick. The newspaper writes that Graf was politically involved with the Social Democratic Party (SPD)—currently the largest party in the German government—and speculates that conflicting political ideologies explain the aggressive attacks against Aiwanger. Graf was apparently shocked by a speech Aiwanger made in the middle of July, in which the leader of the Free Voters called for the silent majority to “take back democracy”—words that Western media outlets and left-liberal politicians have baselessly described as far-right rhetoric. After the speech, Graf decided to show the pamphlet to Süddeutsche Zeitung.
Leaders in Germany have harshly attacked Hubert Aiwanger since news of the pamphlet got published. “All that has become known so far is very depressing. And that is why it is very clear to me that everything must be clarified,” Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday. Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder, leader of the centre-right CSU—Aiwanger’s coalition partner—said there was “no place for antisemitism in the Bavarian government.” The parliament in the southern German state of Bavaria will hold an extraordinary session next week on the matter.
As for Hubert Aiwanger, he apologised for mistakes he made in the past. “I am not an antisemite, not an extremist—but rather, a humanitarian,” Aiwanger told Die Welt. He reiterated that the aim of the abuse campaign launched against him was to weaken his party and force Markus Söder to govern with the opposition Greens after the elections.
According to the latest opinion poll, published before the accusations were made, the CSU and Free Voters are on course to form another coalition after the elections on October 8th. CSU has the backing of 37% of the voters, Free Voters are in third place with 13.5%. The right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which has been surging in polls across Germany, is currently at 18%, and the fourth-placed Greens are set to receive 12.5% of the votes. Söder says he wants to renew his alliance with the Free Voters, but it remains to be seen how the numbers will change.
Bavaria, inhabited by 13 million people, is one of Germany’s wealthiest states, and has been ruled almost entirely by the CSU since the Second World War. The party was forced to forge an allegiance with the Free Voters after one of its worst results in election history five years ago. Then, in 2018, the CSU was punished by voters for internal feuds within the German government and for the failures of Germany’s open-door migration policy, initiated by Chancellor Angela Merkel—leader of the CSU’s sister party, the CDU.
The 2018 elections were also a sign that the Merkel era and the fatigued CDU-SPD grand coalition were coming to an end. On the right side of the political spectrum, the AfD entered the Bavarian parliament for the first time with a result of 10%, and the Free Voters, seen as a conservative alternative to the CSU, rose to 11.6%.
The Free Voters of Bavaria is a loosely aligned group whose primary demand is greater municipal and local independence from the national government in Berlin and less dominance from Germany’s established parties. Hubert Aiwanger has been tough on migration policy, saying that political refugees should be granted asylum but treated as guests until they are able to return to their homes. He has also said that instead of banning people from carrying knives, “Bavaria and Germany would be safer if every respectable man and woman had a knife in their pocket, and we would lock up all serious criminals.”
Speaking to Bild a few weeks ago, Aiwanger denounced the woke policies of the Greens, who wage “an ideological battle against firewood, car drivers, and meat-eaters.”
