German state leader demands answers on antisemitic flyer

A powerful German state leader orders a probe into an antisemitism scandal within his ruling coalition just weeks ahead of a key regional election.

Bavarian premier Markus Soeder, who has ambitions to also lead Germany, had earlier called crisis talks between his conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) and his junior partners, the populist Free Voters, over an affair that emerged at the weekend.

Free Voters leader Hubert Aiwanger, who is also Soeder’s deputy in the state government, allegedly produced a flyer as a teenager mocking Holocaust victims.

Witnesses told the daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung that Aiwanger had been disciplined by his school three decades ago for the leaflet, which proposed a satirical quiz on “the biggest fatherland traitor” and offered as a prize “a free trip through the chimney in Auschwitz.”

Aiwanger has denied being behind the leaflet and over the weekend his brother assumed responsibility for the text, which Soeder now describes as “disgusting, revolting and the most ghastly Nazi jargon.”

He tells reporters after the emergency coalition talks that he is not satisfied with Aiwanger’s explanation and demanded he reply in writing to 25 questions about the affair.

“This isn’t just a foolish youth prank,” he says, adding that “even the suspicion” that Aiwanger was behind the flyer “damages the image of Bavaria.”

“There is no place for antisemitism in the Bavarian state government,” he adds.