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Free voters want more of Söder's cake - and are becoming more and more similar to the CSU

2023-03-27T11:31:20.072Z


Hubert Aiwanger has again been chosen as the top candidate of the Free Voters. Half a year before the Bavarian elections it is clear: there are hardly any differences to the CSU in terms of content.


Hubert Aiwanger has again been chosen as the top candidate of the Free Voters.

Half a year before the Bavarian elections it is clear: there are hardly any differences to the CSU in terms of content.

Augsburg – At the end of his speech, Hubert Aiwanger is more relaxed than ever.

At first, the 52-year-old leader of the Free Voters only looks satisfied, then a smile breaks out of him, and finally a real laugh.

It is one of the few moments in which the Lower Bavarian shows emotions that go beyond political anger in a speech.

And it seems that after his 45-minute speech at the party conference, a heavy load fell from his soul.

Without Aiwanger, nothing works for the Free Voters

The scene at the party conference in Augsburg shows: Without the Lower Bavarian agricultural engineer, nothing works for the free voters.

And what's more: While the Free Voters in 2018 were repeatedly ridiculed or even mocked for their election goal of governing with the CSU, they have long since grown into an indispensable first choice for Prime Minister Markus Söder.

Worries about being crushed by the "sumo wrestler CSU" no longer have even pessimists.

"There were phases when some hoped that this coalition would break up and then finally, finally the Greens would come in and the Free Voters could be declared a failure because in the hour of need they are not willing to go along certain paths," This is how the unanimously elected top candidate Aiwanger describes the party's first term of office, which ended on October 8th.

But the maneuvers failed.

"No, we won't be shaken off."

Free voters want to continue governing with the CSU

Aiwanger and Co have big plans for the election in a little over six months: They not only want to govern again with the CSU and present themselves as a conservative-bourgeois alternative to the traffic lights in the federal government.

Rather, among the Free Voters, the hope is fermenting that the next government will get a bigger piece of the cake of power.

Aiwanger avoids specifying a percentage as a target, but Minister of Education Michael Piazolo does that later, when he once again describes the 15 percent mark as a realistic figure.

In 2018, the FW got 11.6 percent of the votes.

In surveys one is constantly between ten and eleven percent.

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Free voters always closer to the CSU

In order not to endanger the goal, Aiwanger's people are so harmonious with the CSU and Söder that it is noticeable.

While criticism for the SPD, Greens and FDP rained down in the keynote speech, the CSU also enjoyed unprecedented protection here.

As a reminder: In the 2018 election campaign, Aiwanger and Söder still wanted to shoot each other on the moon.

At the time, Aiwanger repeatedly emphasized that Söder – who at the time also thought an alliance with the Greens was conceivable – should not be entrusted with the country alone.

In 2023, thematic differences to the CSU can hardly be identified.

Either there are no longer any FW demands that contradict the CSU and could cause trouble in later coalition negotiations, or they have been put on the index.

The renewed rejection of a third runway for Munich Airport can probably be solved without conflict, as can the demand for further relaxation of wind power and the rejection of the so-called property tax C.

But the too harmonious and thematic proximity also harbors a risk for the Free Voters: In the end, the conservative voters could ask themselves whether they should not make their cross directly with the CSU.

(Marco Hadem)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2023-03-27

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