Shortly after the announcement of the first projections from Bavaria Hubert Aiwanger said he would Prime Minister Markus Söder "feasible proposals on the table". And he was convinced: "The CSU will bite."
Aiwanger is one of the winners of the election evening in Bavaria: His Free Voters (FW) achieved a record 11.7 percent and are now the first choice of the CSU in the search for a coalition partner. Söder described the second-worst CSU result in party history (according to extrapolations around 37.3 percent) as "sometimes painful". But the CSU was the strongest force and had received a "clear government mandate". Söder made it clear that he is now seeking a "civic alliance" with the Free Voters.
Landtag election Bavaria 2018
ARD | ZDF
Extrapolation ARD, 0.00 clock
Total vote result
Shares in percent
Christian Social Union
37.2
-10.5
SPD
9.6
-11
Free voters
11.7
+2.7
green
17.7
+9.1
FDP
5
+1.7
The left
3.1
+1
AFD
10.3
+10.3
other
5.4
-3.3
allocation of seats
Total: 207
Majority: 104 seats
0
23
38
26
11
85
24
The Left (0)
SPD (23)
Green (38)
Free Voters (26)
FDP (11)
CSU (85)
AfD (24)
Source: ARD / Infratest Dimap
Extrapolation ZDF, 10:45 pm
Total vote result
Shares in percent
Christian Social Union
37.4
-10.3
SPD
9.3
-11.3
Free voters
11.8
+2.8
green
17.8
+9.2
FDP
5
+1.7
The left
3.2
+1.1
AFD
10.3
+10.3
other
5.2
-3.5
allocation of seats
Total: 192
Majority: 97 seats
0
20
37
25
10
78
22
The Left (0)
SPD (20)
Green (37)
Free Voters (25)
FDP (10)
CSU (78)
AfD (22)
Source: ZDF / Research Group Elections
Results in detail
Aiwanger was born in 1971 in Ergoldsbach in Lower Bavaria. The graduate agricultural engineer runs a small farm in Rahstorf, he is a hobby hunter and a father of two. Only at the age of 30 did he decide to go into politics and to the free voters. The CSU was too arrogant for him, as he once said. Aiwanger is also: city council and county council and district chairman, Bavarian state chairman, parliamentary fraction leader and also federal chairman of the Free Voters.
Aiwanger rose with its voter grouping in Bavaria to serious force, as the CSU ruled from 2003 to 2008 still with a two-thirds majority. The dissatisfaction of the voters after the reform anger of CSU leader and Prime Minister Edmund Stoiber and the following chaotic overthrow Stoiber could Aiwanger and his comrades use - and move in 2008 with more than ten percent for the first time in the state parliament. These were votes most of which came from former CSU voters.
Already in 2008, the Free Voters already appeared to many as the natural coalition partner of the CSU. But the then new Prime Minister Horst Seehofer insisted that the free voters without government participation as a phenomenon by itself. But in 2013 Aiwanger moved in with his people again in the state parliament. He has now repeated this.
more on the subject
Free-Voters boss AiwangerEr annoys Söder - and can save him
In his party there are "the last reasonable conservatives - only with us there will be a bourgeois, value-conservative government," Aiwanger said recently. He had already set conditions in the run-up to the election, without which his party would not enter into a coalition: Absolutely must be prevented, for example, the third runway at Munich Airport.
In a coalition with the CSU, the free voters could also call on the ministries of agriculture and science, two ministries that are important to Prime Minister Söder and in which he has just appointed new women ministers.
Video analysis: "CSU can choose its partner"
Video
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Free voters are conservative and pragmatic. Aiwanger is the face of the party (read more about him and the party here). He says of himself that he is social, ecological and conservative. This is also reflected in the program of the Free Voters:
- They demand free day nurseries and less-term contracts - like the SPD.
- They want to prevent more animal welfare and a third runway at Munich Airport - like the Greens.
- They want to limit the family reunification for refugees and create repatriation assistance - like the CSU.
- They want more local knowledge in the schools, they want to promote dialects and preserve customs.