Bavaria's Deputy Prime Minister Aiwanger still does not want to be vaccinated

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Hubert Aiwanger, Minister of Economic Affairs in Bavaria and Federal Chairman of the Free Voters

Photo: Christophe Gateau / dpa

Bavaria's vaccination rate is below the national average.

That is why Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) has been campaigning for vaccinations for months.

After all, vaccinations are considered to be the best protection against the coronavirus.

But so far, Söder has not been able to convince his deputy Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters).

Now Aiwanger, who is also the Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs, has justified his waiver of a corona vaccination with allegedly threatening side effects.

"You don't have to make a secret about the fact that you also hear about cases in your personal environment that have massive vaccine side effects," said Aiwanger on Deutschlandfunk.

Aiwanger did not want to specify these cases in detail.

"One or the other time the spit is gone," he added.

Aiwanger said he did not want to be vaccinated "until further notice" and would wait until he was convinced that vaccination would make more sense for him personally than staying unvaccinated.

Söder reacts with criticism

Instead of vaccinations, he relies on masks, keeping a distance and testing, said Aiwanger, who will also run as federal chairman with the free voters in the federal election.

It is better to talk about testing than to "start the hunt" on those who have not yet been vaccinated, he continued.

His coalition partner, Bavaria's Prime Minister Söder, reacted directly to Aiwanger's statements.

"I don't understand the arguments," said Söder.

Aiwangers' no to vaccinations has been causing tension in the Bavarian state government for weeks.

A month ago, Söder publicly urged Aiwanger to justify why he was not getting vaccinated.

At that time, Aiwanger had not yet spoken about alleged side effects, but rather said that he would want to look at the development in the next few weeks and months.

In mid-July, in the discussion about possible political pressure on people who would not be vaccinated against the coronavirus, Aiwanger warned against an "apartheid discussion" and thus already attracted a lot of criticism from the CSU.

Söder described the statements as "disturbing" and inappropriate for a deputy prime minister.

Aiwanger should take back the choice of words and apologize for it, demanded the head of government.

The dispute is also politically explosive because the number of first vaccinations in the state is only 58.9 percent of the population.

The national average is 61.1 percent.

Bavaria has 47.9 percent of the fully vaccinated, while the national average is 50.2 percent.

In North Rhine-Westphalia, led by Union Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet, the vaccination rate is 64.4 percent first-time vaccinations and 52.2 percent fully vaccinated, above the national average and well ahead of Bavaria.

lau / dpa / AFP