Aiwanger's leaflet affair The majority thinks Söder's decision is right
Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (56, CSU) is sticking by his deputy Hubert Aiwanger (52, Free Voters) despite the leaflet affair. He explained this on Sunday, admitting: “I know that not everyone will like my decision, there remain residual doubts.”
But a current survey now shows: The majority of Germans support Söder's decision!
► As a Forsa survey for “Stern” showed, 58 percent of Germans think Söder’s decision to keep Aiwanger in office was correct. 34 percent are of the opinion that Söder should have fired Aiwanger. Another eight percent did not provide any information.
According to the survey, approval is particularly high among voters for the CSU (92 percent), the AfD (86 percent), the CDU (77 percent) and the FDP (72 percent).
In contrast, the majority of supporters of the SPD (65 percent) and the Greens (71 percent) believed that it was right to dismiss the free-voter politician.
In Bavaria, the result was even clearer than in the federal government: Here, 72 percent think Söder's decision was correct. Only 23 percent would have supported Aiwanger's dismissal from the state government. Five percent express no opinion.
Aiwanger “showed remorse” in a “long conversation” with Söder about the anti-Semitic leaflet, Bavaria’s Prime Minister said on Sunday. Aiwanger apologized “late, but not too late”. The following applies: “None of us today are the same as we were when we were 16.”
Therefore, “dismissal is not proportionate”.
