{"id":6744,"date":"2023-09-03T19:16:29","date_gmt":"2023-09-03T14:16:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/?p=6744"},"modified":"2023-09-03T19:16:31","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T14:16:31","slug":"bavarian-deputy-pm-to-stay-on-despite-anti-semitism-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/news\/bavarian-deputy-pm-to-stay-on-despite-anti-semitism-scandal\/","title":{"rendered":"Bavarian deputy PM to stay on despite anti-Semitism scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The leader of Germany’s powerful Bavaria state said Sunday he would keep his deputy in the job despite a row over an old anti-Semitic leaflet, hoping to draw a line under the scandal ahead of a regional election.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bavaria’s conservative prime minister Markus Soeder said it would “not be proportionate” to sack Hubert Aiwanger — a move that would have upended the southern state’s ruling coalition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aiwanger has faced days of controversy over Nazi pamphlets found in his schoolbag as a teenager in the late 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The now 52-year-old is Bavaria’s deputy premier and leader of the populist Free Voters party, the junior coalition partner to Soeder’s conservative Christian Social Union (CSU).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aiwanger has admitted to being in possession of the leaflets but denies producing or distributing them. His brother has since claimed to be the author.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The document proposed a satirical quiz on “the biggest fatherland traitor” and offered as a prize “a free trip through the chimney in Auschwitz”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aiwanger, who is also Bavaria’s economy minister, on Thursday said he had made mistakes in his youth and apologised for any hurt caused, especially to victims of Nazi-era atrocities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking at a Munich press conference, Soeder said although the leaflet was “disgusting” there was no evidence Aiwanger had written it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aiwanger had also expressed regret for what happened 35 years ago, he stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s not just what you say at 16 that matters, but also how you deal with it as a 52-year-old,” Soeder said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“And if you show true remorse, it’s easier to hope for forgiveness.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Soeder stopped short of giving Aiwanger a free pass, notably criticising his deputy for not apologising sooner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also said Aiwanger’s written answers to a list of 25 questions “were not all satisfactory”.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The leader of Germany’s powerful Bavaria state said Sunday he would keep his deputy in the job despite a row over an old anti-Semitic leaflet, hoping to draw a line under the scandal ahead of a regional election. Bavaria’s conservative prime minister Markus Soeder said it would “not be proportionate” to sack Hubert Aiwanger — […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":6745,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,342,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6744"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}