As of: February 9, 2024, 7:13 p.m
By: Stephanie Munk
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Press
Split
There is a crash in the Bavaria coalition between Söder and Aiwanger.
The SPD and the Greens call on the CSU and the Free Voters to reason with a motion.
Update from February 8th, 10:53 a.m.:
The Bavarian opposition is now also jumping on the dispute between Hubert Aiwanger's Free Voters and Markus Söder CSU: The SPD submitted an emergency motion to the state parliament on Wednesday (October 7th), with the title “100 days of black-orange gossip coalition: move the Free State forward now!”
“The argument and wrangling of authority in the Bavarian government must stop,” demands SPD parliamentary group leader Florian von Brunn in the motion.
At the meeting he then railed: “Unfortunately” the coalition of CSU and Free Voters has turned into a “squabble coalition” that “so far has only made announcements and argued about competencies”.
According to the SPD, both parties are to blame for the current cause of the dispute - the wind farm closure in Mehring: "The CSU's rejection of wind turbines in Bavaria for years shows its negative effect," is the criticism.
And: “The responsible economics minister is a guest at many demos, but has not yet presented a concept for the accelerated expansion of wind power or energy storage.”
With CSU boss Markus Söder (r.) and Free Voters boss Hubert Aiwanger, two alpha animals collide.
© Frank Hoermann/Sven Simon/Imago
The SPD and the Greens criticize the Bavarian coalition – Free voters are once again taunting Söder
The Bavarian Greens joined in the criticism: “If you continue like you did in the first 100 days, then you won’t even be able to do what little you set out to do,” complained Green MP Johannes Becher.
The application was rejected at the meeting with the votes of the government parties and the AfD.
Nevertheless, the dispute between the CSU and the Free Voters continued in the state parliament session.
According to BR
, FW MP Josef Lausch taunted
Söder at the lectern and said in greeting: “Dear Mr. President, dear Prime Minister - is not present -, dear Deputy Prime Minister, who, by the way, has been present in every state parliament session so far in 2024. There have often been discussions about Söder's absences in parliament - Lausch probably wanted to remind people of this in view of the criticism of Aiwanger's lack of presence.
First report: Aiwanger scoffs at “tips” from Söder – things are crunching in the Bayern coalition
First report:
Munich - It was already apparent before the state elections that the much-vaunted harmony in the self-proclaimed Bavarian coalition between the CSU and the Free Voters could soon show cracks.
Since citizens voted no to a wind farm in Mehring (Altötting district), the mood in the coalition now seems icier than ever before.
A public dispute over the question of guilt has been going on for days.
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First, the CSU complained that Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) had neglected his job at the wind farm.
Aiwanger then complained that he had not been involved enough, that he had only been responsible for a short time, and that Prime Minister Markus Söder had also been involved far too much “from above”.
Söder's Secretary General Marin Huber then attacked Aiwanger: He had not shown up on site in the run-up to the referendum in order to instead "take part in five demonstrations".
Aiwanger takes aim at Söder: “Don’t give other ministers tips either”
Aiwanger probably wouldn't be Aiwanger if he let that happen.
On Tuesday he took another shot at Söder.
“Well, whether a CSU general secretary has to dictate the job description to me...,” he complained to the
BR
.
“We are an independent party, and I do not give other ministers tips through my Secretary General on how to conduct their offices.” In other words: Söder has nothing to say to Aiwanger - not even through his Secretary General.
Aiwanger contradicted the accusation that he should have shown more presence in the wind farm region.
It is flattering to believe that the citizens' initiative would have turned out differently if he had gone to Mehring instead of to the farmers' demonstrations.
But the problems lie elsewhere, according to the Deputy Prime Minister: the wind farm plans were made public “very quickly” shortly after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
It is now important to better involve citizens.
CSU minister defends herself against Aiwanger's allegations: "He was more than informed"
Aiwanger did this on Tuesday afternoon (February 6th) by driving to Mehring to talk to local politicians about the citizens' vote - and the question of what happens next.
He is confident “that we will be able to save a decent number of wind turbines,” said the Economics Minister after cabinet discussions in Munich.
They still want to encourage communities to get involved and move wind turbine locations.
But it's not all sunshine and roses yet because of Aiwanger's visit to Mehring: Agriculture Minister Michaela Kaniber also joined the dispute on Tuesday (February 6).
She did not want to accept Aiwanger's claim that she was actually responsible for the wind farm until the election and that Aiwanger was not involved in the planning.
“Minister Aiwanger and his house were far more than informed, they were involved,” she explained in response to
a BR
query.
The Minister of Economic Affairs has “always” had the reins in wind energy expansion in his hand.
Coalition between Söder's CSU and Aiwanger's Free Voters is showing cracks
The squabble surrounding the wind farm is just one of several symptoms that indicate a tense relationship between the coalition partners.
CSU representatives had previously accused the Free Voters leader of not paying enough attention to economic policy and instead preferring to “demo hop” at farmers’ and other rallies.
Söder's plan to present himself as an alternative to the divided traffic light coalition in the federal government is floundering.
Aiwanger remains outwardly unimpressed by all of this.
The party leader's main motto seems to be to make his Free Voters big.
He doesn't want to hear accusations that he's fishing for the right-wing fringe in a populist manner.
He is a man of the people and is there where the citizens are in trouble.
A lack of presence also becomes a problem for Aiwanger elsewhere
Aiwanger is also accused of a lack of presence from other quarters: After the cabinet meeting on Tuesday (February 6th), Aiwanger confirmed a report from the
Münchner Merkur
:
According to this, the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs is refusing to appoint him again because he has not attended a single meeting in five years .
Aiwanger justified his abstinence on Tuesday with massive scheduling conflicts.
In each case he had to decide between time-consuming participation in meetings and five to seven appointments at home.
His predecessor on the committee, the current state parliament president Ilse Aigner (CSU), was therefore only there once in five years.
Nevertheless, a CSU politician should now perhaps replace Aiwanger: Science Minister Markus Blume.
(smu with material from dpa)