Shock in Bavaria: Hubert Aiwanger is dead

Hubert Aiwanger, head of the Free Voters, was in Berlin on Wednesday and wanted to attend appointments for his party. In the afternoon, however, he was represented at an appointment: He complained of feeling unwell and retreated to his hotel near Friedrichstrasse train station. He was found lifeless in his hotel room early in the evening. The Berlin public prosecutor's office confirmed the politician's death. A “death investigation” had been initiated to “find out the specific cause of death and how it happened and to rule out possible foul play,” it said.

The 55-year-old from Lower Bavaria leaves behind his partner, Regensburg district administrator Tanja Schweiger (also a Free Voter), and their two sons. Aiwanger's parents lose their son.

Aiwanger also leaves several gaps politically: he was not only Bavarian deputy prime minister, economics minister and member of the state parliament, but also party leader at both the state and federal levels. His re-election as federal chairman would have been due the week after next.

While the Free Voters in Bavaria have been very strong at the local level for many decades, their establishment at the state level is almost entirely Aiwanger's work. He brought the party into the state parliament in 2008, and ten years later into the Bavarian state government as a junior partner of the CSU. A CSU sole government, which used to be the norm in Bavaria, is now hardly imaginable.

The controversial politician caused – to say the least – unrest in Bavarian politics. Before the last state elections in 2023, he initially attracted attention with his populist tones. At a demonstration in Erding organized by the controversial former cabaret artist Monika Gruber, he demanded that “the silent majority” must “take back democracy”. A little later the leaflet affair followed. When Aiwanger was at school, a particularly disgusting anti-Semitic leaflet was found, and he was suspected of being the author of it. According to Aiwanger, however, his brother wrote the pamphlet. With the affair he brought the state government into crisis. However, it did not harm his party. She did particularly well in the 2023 elections with 15.8 percent.

It is completely unclear who will succeed Aiwanger in the party and government. At the state level, the party is strongly tailored to its leader. No one stands out as a clear successor. Florian Streibl, the parliamentary group leader of the Free Voters in the Bavarian state parliament, is likely to play a crucial role in the personnel search process.

State Secretary Tobias Gotthardt, also a Free Voter, will initially take over the business in the Ministry of Economics. Gotthardt received the news of Aiwanger's death on a business trip to Singapore, which he then canceled. “The news of Hubert’s sudden death hits me deeply and is incomprehensible to all of us,” Gotthardt said. "With him, Bavaria is losing a person with a heart for his homeland, a humanitarian who always worked with all his might for the people of the Free State. His work, but also his smile, will be missed in this world."

Streibl also expressed his dismay and described Aiwanger as the “ideal embodiment of a Bavarian: hard-working, down-to-earth, reliable, clear-minded, committed and always there for others as a person, friend and politician.”

Bavaria's Prime Minister and CSU leader Markus Söder, whose relationship with Aiwanger could at least be described as difficult, spoke up on X: "The sudden death of Hubert Aiwanger is an absolute tragedy. We are all deeply shocked. Our thoughts are now first with his family and his children." And State Parliament President Ilse Aigner (CSU) wrote on Instagram: “His completely unexpected death is a serious loss for the Bavarian State Parliament and for all politics in Bavaria.”