Free voters after Aiwanger: Looking for a face

And now? After the initial shock, the question in Bavaria is what will happen next without Hubert Aiwanger. A question that, of course, primarily concerns the Free Voters themselves. While Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) has ordered mourning flags to be placed on state buildings and has a condolence book displayed in the Prinz-Carl-Palais and the public prosecutor in Berlin has ruled out possible foul play in the death of the Bavarian Deputy Prime Minister and Free Voters leader, his party has to make future plans for the period afterwards - something that, until Wednesday evening, it could confidently assume was very far away.

Aiwanger died completely unexpectedly on Wednesday during a stay in Berlin. Among other things, he wanted to open a new party office in the capital. Because he felt unwell, he had to be represented at short notice at the appointment. He was found lifeless in his hotel room early in the evening.

Aiwanger was not only Bavarian deputy prime minister, economics minister and member of the state parliament, but also head of the Free Voters at both the Bavarian and federal levels. At the party conference on November 14th in Geiselwind, Aiwanger wanted to be confirmed as federal chairman. The party conference has now been postponed. Filling this office is not the easiest exercise for the Free Voters.

When you talk about the Free Voters you are actually talking about three different parties. On the one hand, there are the free voters at the local level. They are a political force that has grown over decades and draws its strength from local personalities. In the countryside in Bavaria they provide numerous district administrators, mayors and local councilors. They did particularly well in the most recent local elections in March - in contrast to the CSU, which lost many district offices and town halls, especially in the runoff elections. There is unlikely to be any change in the strength of the Free Voters at the local level.

There are also the Free Voters at the federal level - a splinter party that is a negligible factor in federal politics. But then there is the state party - in a sense, Aiwanger's life's work. It has 37 members in the Bavarian state parliament and four ministers and a state secretary in the cabinet. For them, Aiwanger's death has the most political weight.

Aiwanger was the strong man of the Free Voters in the state parliament and has also been in the state government since 2018. State Secretary Tobias Gotthardt will initially take over the business in the Ministry of Economics. The executive boards of the federal and state parties as well as the state parliamentary group want to meet at the weekend to discuss how to proceed.

There are currently no signs of who will succeed Aiwanger and in what position. From a technical point of view, Gotthardt would be an obvious solution for replacing the Ministry of Economic Affairs, but he is not considered a particular heavyweight in the party. Which raises the question of who is actually doing this besides Aiwanger.

At least this could be attributed to parliamentary group leader Florian Streibl. In any case, he is likely to play an important role in the search for successors. It is not known whether he himself is interested in moving to the government or the party leadership. The 37-year-old Digital Minister Fabian Mehring is considered particularly ambitious and is said to have the confidence to take on any office. The first row of Free Voters also includes Education Minister Anna Stolz and Environment Minister Thorsten Glauber. Also well-known faces of the party are Stolz’s predecessor Michael Piazolo and the Deputy President of the State Parliament Alexander Hold. However, as a city dweller and professor, the former lacks the beer tent suitability that is so important in the party, while the latter is currently becoming increasingly involved outside of politics - as a television judge on Sat1.

On Thursday, Streibl described Aiwanger not only as an “exceptional politician”, but also as “the face of the Free Voters”. Of course, the party currently has no candidates who could succeed Aiwanger in this crucial role.