Climate activists disrupt Lindner’s performance – he has the audience on his side
Lindner lets people vote on the selection of topics at the citizens’ dialogue – and wins
All questions are allowed, said Christian Lindner at the beginning of a citizens’ dialogue in Essen. When climate activists loudly criticized him, he put the room to a vote on the choice of topics – and won.
At a citizens’ dialogue, a group of climate activists wants to loudly confront Finance Minister Christian Lindner. The FDP leader replies: Self-renunciation and asceticism are not a solution. He then lets the room vote on the evening’s topics – with a clear result.
bFederal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) insists on compliance with the debt brake in Germany. At a citizens’ dialogue on Thursday in Essen, he emphasized the country’s role model role in the European Monetary Union. Germany must reduce the debt ratio from 64 percent below the threshold of 60 percent of economic output as quickly as possible. Without the debt brake, politicians could succumb to the temptation to make expensive promises, especially during election campaigns, warned Lindner.
There were loud protests during the event – on the Portal X The group Scientist Rebellion, which also took part in the “Last Generation” blockade actions, shared videos of the action.
Several activists in the group initially confronted Lindner with questions before unveiling protest banners (“The FDP is destroying”) and protesting against the FDP’s climate policy. The party leader emphasized that, in his view, broad waiver for climate protection could not be implemented. “I don’t think giving up billions is a political possibility,” said Lindner. Self-renunciation and asceticism are not a solution.
“You have already had the opportunity to explain your position through your questions. You heard mine. At the beginning I said that every opinion would be accepted,” said Lindner to the activists when they wanted to continue the discussion. The finance minister received applause from the rest of the audience for his statement.
He announced that he would reform the climate protection law from the time of the grand coalition. Technological developments such as nuclear fusion could also contribute to solving the climate crisis. Finally, he let the people in the room vote on whether they wanted to continue discussing climate policy as the sole topic of the evening. The audience didn’t want that. The activists were escorted out of the hall. They then continued to demonstrate in front of the venue.
The appointment in Essen was part of a “citizen dialogue tour” by the finance minister. He had previously visited Lübeck in February. There will be an appointment in Bonn in April as part of the celebrations for the 75th birthday of the Basic Law.
In the past few days, Lindner has repeatedly caused debates in the traffic light coalition with his statements. On Wednesday in the “Rheinische Post” he called for an “update” of the citizen’s benefit because, in his opinion, it provides too few incentives to take up work. He also addressed this topic again in Essen. SPD parliamentary group deputy Dagmar Schmidt then accused the FDP leader of leading a jealous discussion.