The deputy prime minister and person in charge of Economy in Bavaria, Hubert Aiwanger, has been found dead at 55 years old in a hotel room in Berlin on Wednesday afternoon, as the Public Prosecution Service of the German capital has confirmed.
The body of the political leader was found at the Hotel Neuer Fritz in the German capital. Aiwanger was scheduled to take part in the opening of an office in Berlin of the Free Voters (Freie Wähler) —a group he led both at the regional and federal levels—, but canceled his attendance citing health problems before he was found unconscious in his room.
The Berlin Public Prosecution Service, together with the Police, has launched an investigation to clarify the causes and the exact circumstances of the death and to rule out the possible involvement of third parties. “The specific circumstances in which he was found cannot be disclosed for the moment for reasons linked to the investigation,” a spokesperson for the public prosecution service said, who also confirmed that an autopsy of the body is expected to be ordered.
After the news became public, the minister-president of Bavaria, Markus Söder, expressed on social media that he was “deeply shocked” by the death. “The sudden death of Hubert Aiwanger is an absolute tragedy. We are all deeply shocked. Our thoughts are now with his family and his children,” the Bavarian leader said in a message that was also shared by the regional Government.
Aiwanger took charge of the parliamentary group of the Free Voters in Bavaria in 2008. A decade later, in 2018, the group joined the coalition Government with the Christian Social Union (CSU), which allowed him to access the Vice Presidency of the regional Executive and the Economy portfolio.