Free Voters of Bavaria

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Free Voters of Bavaria Freie Wähler Bayern
Abbreviation	FW
Chairperson	Hubert Aiwanger
Founded	6 May 1978; 46 years ago (1978-05-06) (as Landesverband) 7 June 1997; 26 years ago (1997-06-07) (as party)
Headquarters	Munich, Germany
Youth wing	Young Free Voters
Ideology	Bavarian regionalism Conservatism[1][2][3][4] Direct democracy[5]
Political position	Centre-right[6][7]
National affiliation	Free Voters
Slogan	Bayerns starke Mitte. "Bavaria's strong centre."
Bundestag (Bavarian seats)	0 / 108
Landtag of Bavaria	37 / 203
Bezirktags (Bavaria)	32 / 238
Bavarian State Government (Cabinet Söder II)	5 / 18
Website
www.fw-bayern.de
Politics of Germany Political parties Elections Politics of Bavaria

The Free Voters of Bavaria (German: Freie Wähler Bayern) is a conservative^{[8][9][10][11]} political party in Bavaria, considered centrist^[12] or centre-right.^[13] It has served as part of the governing coalition there since the 2018 state election under the leading Christian Social Union. The term "Free Voters" is also applied to the various independent voter groups common in Bavarian municipal and district elections. The name Free Voters of Bavaria applies to both the Bavarian State Association of Free and Independent Voters (seat: Munich), an umbrella organization of Free Voter groups, as well as the Bavarian state chapter of the nationwide party Free Voters (German: Freie Wähler). The two groups exist simultaneously under the same name due to Bavarian election law not allowing umbrella organizations to run for office, thus the state party Free Voters of Bavaria was founded in 1997 in order to participate in the Bavarian state elections.

Due to the party's origins as an organization of independent politicians seeking alternatives to the established parties, the Free Voters are loosely organized and have no standardized ideology among its members. They stand as a centrist to centre-right party and often focus on local issues and local politics, as a consequence of their advocacy for more direct-democratic measures. The Free Voters of Bavaria are led by Hubert Aiwanger, who has been the party leader since 2018, and who currently serves as a Deputy Minister-President of Bavaria.