Flyer affair: Süddeutsche Zeitung reports on Aiwanger's school pamphlet

On 25 August 2023, the Munich daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that a crude antisemitic pamphlet had surfaced at a Bavarian secondary school in the late 1980s. The text mocked Holocaust victims and was linked to Hubert Aiwanger, then a pupil and by 2023 Bavaria's deputy premier and leader of the Free Voters party, the junior partner in the state government.

Aiwanger first said he had not written the flyer and considered the reporting a smear campaign ahead of the state election. His older brother Helmut then said he was the author. Aiwanger later acknowledged that copies had been found in his school bag and apologised, while rejecting some of the allegations about his youth.

Premier Markus Söder, of the CSU, sent him a catalogue of 25 questions and, in early September, decided against dismissing him, calling it disproportionate. The "Flugblattaffäre" dominated the final weeks of the campaign. Aiwanger's party then gained votes in the October 2023 election, and the coalition continued.