As of: February 17, 2024, 10:32 p.m
By: Mark Stoffers
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At the Free Voters' party conference, Hubert Aiwanger left no doubt about the status of AfD cooperation.
He has a dig at the traffic lights.
Bitburg - The chairman of the Free Voters, Hubert Aiwanger, once again called for a formal ban on cooperation with the AfD at the party conference in Bitburg.
It should not happen that “somewhere a wild person who then goes into a coalition with the AfD under the name Free Voters (...),” said Aiwanger in his party conference speech on Saturday (February 17).
“Then we are set on fire across Germany.”
Aiwanger for a ban on cooperation with the AfD: head of the Free Voters wants “strict demarcation”
The party executive committee had submitted a motion for a “strict demarcation” from the “extreme political fringes,” which was to be decided on Saturday.
“Political cooperation with the AfD is out of the question for us,” emphasized the party leader.
The Free Voters are a “centre party”.
Hubert Aiwanger and his party, the Free Voters, do not want to cooperate with the AfD.
© Harald Tittel/dpa
There are always attempts to “put us in some corner, preferably in the right-wing corner, because that’s where they want us,” said the Bavarian Economics Minister at the party conference.
But “left-wing extremism is just as hateful to us as right-wing extremism and Islamism.”
Party of the Free Voters: Delimitation from the AfD – “does not accept former members from there”
At their federal party conference for the European elections on Saturday, the Free Voters distanced themselves from political extremism.
92 percent of the more than 440 members in Bitburg approved a motion that forbids cooperation with the Alternative for Germany.
A supplementary motion was unanimously approved, which is intended to exclude cooperation with extreme political forces on the left and right spectrum.
Federal Chairman Hubert Aiwanger explained that this had been the practice of the Free Voters for years.
According to a statement, Bavaria's Economics Minister said: "The clear demarcation against the AfD formulated in the application has been our line for years; for example, we do not accept former members from there." According to a party spokesman, the federal executive board has already made an incompatibility decision after the 2021 federal election caught.
The demarcation of membership will now be placed on a “broader basis”.
Strengthening of the AfD: Aiwanger blames the traffic light coalition
The members also came to Bitburg to discuss and approve the European election program.
The Free Voters are calling, among other things, for a common European border protection unit that must be “able” to monitor the entire EU external border.
Asylum procedures should take place “primarily at the EU’s external borders within days”.
Applicants must be accommodated “in decent housing developments near the EU’s external borders”.
The party is also in favor of “streamlining” agricultural law.
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He blamed the AfD's strengthening primarily on the traffic light coalition, which was moving further and further to the left: “You also have to fight the roots that lead to people who have voted for the SPD for decades suddenly voting for the right wing out of desperation With his statements, Aiwanger once again clearly rejects the rumored coalition between his Free Voters and the AfD.
Disputes in the Bavaria coalition: Deep rifts between Söder and Aiwanger?
In connection with the rise of the AfD, Aiwanger has also had to listen to some criticism from the CSU in the recent past.
On the one hand, Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder had accused the Free Voters of being on a dangerous path to the right and, on the other hand, there was clear criticism from the CSU about his appearances at the farmers' protests.
The criticism went so far that Aiwanger felt forced to defend himself.
The revealed disputes between the CSU and the Free Voters are even calling the opposition in Bavaria into action.
This fights against the “gossip coalition” of Söder and Aiwanger.
Only the future will show whether his clear statements about a ban on forming a coalition with the AfD will change anything.
Aiwanger's disregard for Söder at Political Ash Wednesday shows how deep the rifts seem to be in the Bavarian coalition.