The dispute in the Bavarian government coalition between the chairman of the Free Voters, Hubert Aiwanger, and top politicians of the coalition partner CSU is intensifying.
The CSU parliamentary group leader in the Bavarian state parliament, Thomas Kreuzer, suggested that Economics Minister Aiwanger reconsider his role as Deputy Prime Minister.
With his critical remarks about corona vaccinations, Aiwanger was pursuing a “cheap calculation” in the federal election campaign, said Kreuzer to “Münchner Merkur”.
"He has to think about whether he can remain Deputy Prime Minister."
Kreuzer didn't even rule out ending the government coalition with the Free Voters.
"Of course, other coalitions are also conceivable," he told the newspaper.
Aiwanger thwarted the advice of all experts, only to score points in the federal election campaign with the group of those who refused to be vaccinated, accused Kreuzer of the politician of the Free Voters.
"If he doesn't want to be vaccinated himself, that's his private affair," said Kreuzer.
"Politically, it should be absolutely clear to everyone in this government that we can only get out of the pandemic with a good vaccination rate," said the CSU parliamentary group leader.
Bavaria's Minister of Health, Klaus Holetschek (CSU), had previously stated in the ZDF morning magazine that Aiwangers' behavior was "fatal".
A distinction had to be made between his private attitude and what he said publicly as deputy prime minister.
Aiwanger had said that he would wait to vaccinate until he was convinced that vaccination would make more sense for him personally than staying unvaccinated. From his private environment, he had heard of vaccination side effects that "keep the spit away". In addition, he recently warned on Deutschlandfunk against a “hunt” for unvaccinated people. The citizens had to be convinced “without pressure” and with facts. So far, they have "partly not unjustifiably unsettled," he said - and named the Astrazeneca vaccine in this context.
Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) recently made a connection between Aiwanger's attitude to vaccination and his national political ambitions in several interviews. Aiwanger is running for the Bundestag and wants to crack the five percent hurdle with his party. Söder explained that Aiwanger fish in murky waters. He wants to make himself the alternative of choice for lateral thinkers.
Aiwanger, who described Söder's allegation as "insolence", responded promptly. In an interview on Monday he called for a second vote campaign for free voters. The CSU MPs won their mandates largely without exception through the first votes anyway. That is why the voters with the second vote could vote for the free voters if they wanted to strengthen the “bourgeois camp”. "Actually, the CSU should run a second vote campaign for the Free Voters in the Bundestag election so that they and the state are spared the Greens in Berlin," he said in an interview with the "Passauer Neue Presse" and the "Donaukurier".