Shortly before the FDP’s Epiphany, Bavaria’s head of state Martin Hagen demanded that his party, as part of the federal government, adopt a course that was independent of the SPD and the Greens. “The FDP must not see itself as part of a traffic light camp in the future, but must position itself as an independent force in the middle. This also means that we continue to maintain good contacts with the Union,” said Hagen on Tuesday of the German Press Agency in Munich . The CDU and CSU are not the enemies of the FDP, they remain potential coalition partners. “The SPD, Greens and FDP have got off to a good start in government, the traffic light can modernize the country. But coalitions are always alliances for a time,” Hagen emphasized.
The FDP ruled with the CSU in Bavaria from 2008 to 2013, but the CSU had regained its old strength under Horst Seehofer and was able to govern alone again after the 2013 election – as in the decades before 2008. The FDP no longer made it into the state parliament. The Liberals returned in 2018, but were not strong enough to participate in the government. Since then, the CSU has formed a coalition with the Free Voters.
Hagen was now skeptical about the state of the CSU: “While the CDU has at least clarified its personnel issue with the clear vote for Friedrich Merz, its Bavarian sister party currently seems disoriented.” If the CSU polls do not get better by the middle of the year, calls for a separation of party leadership and prime ministerial office are likely to arise in the party.
With a view to the corona policy, Hagen emphasized that the goal in the Omikron wave must remain to allow as much freedom as possible. “Omikron could be the transition into an endemic phase. Since everyone will be infected with the new variant, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated, the focus must now be on protecting risk groups from severe courses,” he said. In his opinion, a general, age-independent vaccination requirement can hardly be justified in view of the changed situation.