Martin Hagen remains head of the Bavarian FDP after a surprising vote. At the state party conference on Saturday in Amberg, Albert Duin also ran for chairmanship. Hagen narrowly prevailed in the vote with 210 votes to 182. He and his defeated opponent, who was state chairman from 2013 to 2017, then called on the party to unite.
Katja Hessel, a member of the Bundestag and State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, proposed by Hagen, was then elected co-chair. Out of 395 votes cast, she received 213 yes and 167 no votes. According to the Bavarian FDP, the regional association is the first in the party to rely on dual leadership.
Before the vote, the party’s debate after the lost state election had already dragged on much longer than planned. There was clear criticism of the traffic light coalition and the leadership of the federal party, but also of the state party.
The FDP received three percent of the vote in the state election and thus missed out on returning to the state parliament. Hagen wants to take a step back from everyday business in the future. He is planning a break with his family and then wants to resume his previous work as a communications consultant part-time or on a project basis. From November onwards he will only work as a volunteer politician for the FDP.
Hagen is 42 years old and took over the sole chairmanship of the state association in November 2021, and he was also head of the FDP state parliamentary group in the last electoral period. After the devastating election defeat, Hagen offered to resign.
Hessel, 51, from Nuremberg, was State Secretary for Economic Affairs in the Bavarian state government from 2008 to 2013. At that time, the FDP governed together with the CSU, but failed to re-enter the state parliament in the 2013 election, as it did this year. Hessel had already announced weeks ago that as state chairwoman she wanted to increase the visibility of the FDP Bavaria in the extra-parliamentary opposition.