The largest donor of the Free Voters is apparently - Hubert Aiwanger.
However, there were warnings about the form of donation he was using.
Aiwanger himself praises the renunciation.
Munich / Hamburg - By far the largest donor from Free Voters is apparently the party leader himself: Hubert Aiwanger has donated more than 377,000 euros to the party in the past ten years,
Spiegel
reported
on Thursday.
Aiwanger indirectly confirmed the report on Friday: “Yes, that's how it looks dear people!” He wrote in a Facebook post with a view to a corresponding message.
Hubert Aiwanger: Free voter boss donated huge sums to his own party - Schäuble warned against "waiver donations"
Der
Spiegel
relied on reports from the party. At the request of the news magazine, the party announced that some of the donations were so-called waiver donations. This included travel expenses, which Aiwanger did not reimburse. The party had no details were provided on the amount of donations waiver, the reported
levels
further.
Waiver donations have often called the Bundestag administration on the plan, as the
mirror
emphasized. It was only in June that Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble * (CDU) pointed out the "dangers of misuse" of such benefits. With the help of unlawful or bogus expense allowances, parties could artificially inflate their donations and thus receive higher subsidies from state party funding.
Aiwanger only commented on benefits from 2013 through a spokesman, it said.
At that time, he left the party with donations of 32,594.70 euros.
These resulted from the “waiver of travel expenses” such as “mileage allowance, flights, hotel accommodation” and from the “waiver of loan interest”, which were incurred through a private loan to the party.
The spokesman did not provide any information on the amount of the loan or the interest rate.
Aiwanger praises donation by waiver: "A whole house has now come together"
The FW boss presented the report as a positive signal in his reaction. "I never put that on the big bell and never added up the amount that I personally spent to be able to make politics and to be able to remain independent of corporate donations" he emphasized.
In fact, the Free Voters are the only party besides the Left that consistently refrains from corporate donations.
"A whole house has now come together that I have done without," added Aiwanger in his Facebook post.
"But with that I can have a clear conscience and I owe nothing to anyone except the citizens of our country."
Aiwanger, also Bavarian Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Affairs, is currently under criticism for his negative attitude towards corona vaccination.
Most recently, he justified his view with reports of massive side effects, including in his circle of acquaintances, without going into detail.
On Wednesday, however, Aiwanger no longer categorically ruled out vaccination in a talk show * - but once again referred to "the right of the individual to his body".
(
AFP / fn
) *
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Also interesting at Merkur.de *: Vaccine skeptic Hubert Aiwanger: A man with risks and side effects
