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FromChristian Deutschlaender
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Mike Schier
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The Bavarian Economics Minister Aiwanger is very present on Twitter. In an interview with Merkur.de from IPPEN.MEDIA, he talks about his activity.
Hubert Aiwanger feels most comfortable with riflemen, people wearing traditional costumes and farmers. But in the meantime, the deputy prime minister and leader of free voters is also a big number on unusual terrain: on Twitter. Like hardly any other politician, he interacts with other users – often in wild debates. Many are surprised by the harsh tone and puzzled: why is he doing this? His reflected answers in the interview may surprise some.
Mr. Aiwanger, have you ever fought in a beer tent?
Physically? Never. I’ve always mediated, even as class representative or chairman of rural youth. I always intervened and separated the brawlers.
Then why do you throw yourself into every verbal tussle on Twitter?
Again, I’ve never been a brawler, but I’m very good at showdowns – from arm wrestling to finger wrestling.
So Twitter is your verbal finger-whacking.
Yes, because I feel the need not to simply leave certain political positions as they are. I’m defending the normal world against what I think is a crazy world. Then I stand in the way.
Crazy world?
I see ordinary citizens being attacked by those who say you can’t drive anymore, you can’t eat meat anymore — you can’t play Indians and cowboys anymore. You have to tell them clearly: You must be crazy. What you are saying here is nonsense.
As Deputy Prime Minister, you also quarrel with nameless accounts that God knows who could be behind.
I am aware that there are many fake accounts. I’ve already told people like that straight out – no one ever answered: ‘No, I’m Huber Sepp.’ It’s bad enough that this is possible on Twitter. I think that there should be a real name requirement in social networks.
But why are you debating with such accounts?
Because they set opinions. Sometimes you get the impression that 20 or 30 such accounts are attacking you in an organized manner. They are purposefully opinion-forming. And if you don’t oppose them, they eventually dominate the general mood. I don’t want Twitter to become a no-go area for reasonable people – like normal people can no longer drive their cars into some left-wing areas of Berlin because otherwise they’ll get a scratch.
Minister, how would you actually define a statesman?
I won’t let Twitter tell me what statesmanship is. But I can guess what’s behind the question. Left circles want to silence me – according to the motto: Does the minister have nothing else to do? Or: That is not appropriate for a minister! I won’t be fooled by that argument. To accost the minister anonymously is definitely not the way to go!
But there are few ministers who respond to an account called pig with a succinct “grunt”?
I think a bit of humor is needed to take the edge off debates. And it works: they’re still talking about it today, even though it’s been months. I’m a naturally humorous person, even if I had to break the habit in politics. A lot of people don’t understand humor.
On Twitter you are often portrayed as unpredictable or latently insane. But you can see that you are very reflective.
I don’t think that’s the real perception. Rather, a cliché of Aiwanger as a hillbilly is drawn, which is supposed to harm me. They said ‘Aiwanger is stupid.’ I then answered: ‘I had Abitur 1.9 and a scholarship – what did you have?’ But then there was no answer. They also try to portray me as a drunk Bavarian or an alcoholic. I don’t drink alcohol at all.
Doesn’t that even catch you? The FAZ calls you a “rhetorical snow cannon”.
Oh. I have to live with that. If someone only sees me through the BR program “Quer”, they also think I’m a limited farmer. I regularly experience that people who meet me in person for the first time are positively surprised. A wrong picture is deliberately drawn.
Well, at least you’re not completely innocent on Twitter either.
Belongs to the truth: A thigh-slapping tweet about insects in food has a hundredfold perception than a serious one about meeting the biogas farmers. You can reach 200,000 people with it.
That’s tempting.
And also dangerous. If I only tweet like this, that’s the only way I’ll be perceived. So I need at least ten factual tweets in between.
Interesting. A tweet, where you really hit it, does not come from the emotion, but is carefully calculated.
Yes.
In very practical terms: do you always tweet yourself?
I tweet myself on my account. It’s more authentic and successful.
How much time do you spend on Twitter each day?
Actually not much. I often tweet when driving from one appointment to the next. Again in the evening before going to bed. There are still a lot of people out there on Twitter. The Twitter people are different than the Facebook people. Much crazier (laughs).
And Instagram?
I do that too.
But you don’t post your food like Markus Söder.
That is not my style. I don’t want to bother the population with whether I’m eating biscuits or schnitzel.
What do you think of Söder’s Twitter strategy? Unlike you, he mainly posts very professional pictures of himself.
One or two pictures are enough for me: Aiwanger from events. Plus the visitors. I don’t have to choke people down ten times with Aiwanger – they already know what I look like.
How dangerous is Twitter for a politician?
You have to be careful who you retweet or quote or who you like. Right-wing extremists or conspiracy heinis can quickly be there. But it is more difficult that things are deliberately misinterpreted. Because of a technical error months ago, I am accused of running secondary accounts myself. Nonsense!
You have fake accounts too. Do you find them funny?
No. And I found it shocking when some journalists fell for them. This is to discredit me. We’re reporting this, but it’ll be a while before anything happens.
Has response time increased since Elon Musk scaled back all the controls?
I can’t prove it empirically. But felt: yes.
Does the bullying affect you – or does it repel you when you are called a drunkard?
Bouncing would be the wrong word. But I analyze it and see how the milieus diverge ideologically. Even when I post that I’m getting fresh milk from the farmer, it causes a stir – because it’s said that cow’s milk is no longer allowed to be drunk. But if I bought cannabis, these circles would be okay with it. Twitter threatens to get out of control. But I continue to hold up a stop sign.
Interview: Mike Schier and Christian Deutschlaender
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