Hubert Aiwanger is dead: Free voters want to postpone the federal party conference until 2027

“We want to cancel the federal party conference and have it take place on another date,” said one of the deputy federal chairmen, Joachim Streit, to the SWR in Rhineland-Palatinate.

That will probably be 2027. The party conference was actually scheduled for November 14th in Geiselwind, Bavaria.

The EU representative Streit praised Aiwanger on SWR as a “free spirit.” “He was close to the people and focused on them and a fighter for the little man.” At the same time, he always had the bigger picture in mind, “even beyond Bavaria for Germany.”

The news of the 55-year-old's sudden death caused consternation across all parties. Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) described the death of his deputy and economics minister as an "absolute tragedy."

Aiwanger repeatedly caused offense with populist actions and polarized people with the leaflet affair. Under his leadership, the Free Voters in Bavaria celebrated repeated successes and gained membership in the state government. You can read an obituary for the “master of beer tent politics” here.