After Aiwanger's death, free voters discuss how to proceed

After the sudden death of Hubert Aiwanger, there is great consternation beyond Bavaria's borders. The Free Voters now have to reposition themselves - because Aiwanger was the central figure of his party

By Tagesschau 5 Nov 2026 · 11h ago 2 min read

Deutsch (original) ·Auto-translated to English

After Aiwanger's death What's next for the Free Voters? As of: November 5, 2026 • 1:38 p.m

After the sudden death of the Free Voters leader and Bavarian Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger, the party and parliamentary group want to discuss how to proceed by the weekend. The executive committees at federal and state levels are already meeting this evening, as the Federal Association of Free Voters announced. The party remains “fully capable of acting”.

At the weekend, the federal and state executive boards of Bavaria as well as the Bavarian state parliamentary group will meet in Munich to discuss how to proceed. They said they wanted to continue the work “in the spirit of Hubert Aiwanger.”

Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder also announced that he would continue his party's common policy with the Free Voters. The CSU boss said he worked closely with Aiwanger. Together they pursued a bourgeois, liberal-conservative policy. “We will continue to do this with the Free Voters in his spirit, in our spirit.”

According to one of the deputy federal chairmen, a federal party conference planned for November 14th, at which Aiwanger wanted to be re-elected as federal leader of the Free Voters, will be postponed until next year.

The surprising death of Free Voters leader Aiwanger has caused consternation across all parties. more

In 2008, Aiwanger and his Free Voters entered the Bavarian state parliament for the first time and became their parliamentary group leader. Ten years later, in 2018, the CSU and Free Voters forged a coalition. Aiwanger became economics minister and deputy prime minister.

A turning point was the late summer of 2023, when Aiwanger came under massive criticism. The background was an anti-Semitic leaflet that was found on him when he was at school. His brother later said in an interview that he had written the paper. That was shortly before the state elections in Bavaria. At that time, the government coalition with the CSU was on the verge of failure. Aiwanger was threatened with expulsion. Nevertheless, he celebrated a new record result of 15.8 percent for the Free Voters in the election.

Söder explained that he found out about Aiwanger's death from his interior minister yesterday evening. “Like many others, I couldn’t believe it,” said the Prime Minister. Aiwanger's death tears a deep hole in Bavarian politics, but also in the hearts of many people. He praised his long-time deputy as a "real man, a strong Bavarian, a good economics minister, but also a warm-hearted person."

The cause of Aiwanger's death is still unclear. The 55-year-old was found lifeless in a Berlin hotel yesterday evening. The public prosecutor's office opened a death investigation. Aiwanger's body will be autopsied today.

Originally published byTagesschau

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