Day in and day out, FDP leader Christian Lindner comes around the corner with a new initiative. Is this already an election campaign? There is great irritation in the SPD.
Christian Lindner has a lot to get rid of right now. There is hardly any other explanation for the FDP chairman’s strong sense of mission. Day in and day out, the finance minister hammers in another peg or sets a new scent. Here for citizen’s money, there for pension. “Los Wochos” at Lindner, political fast food for quick consumption? Everything must Go?
In the SPD, they view the ever-new advances with suspicion and sometimes shake their heads. The mood: increasingly irritable.
“There is nothing wrong with the chairman of the FDP presenting his election program,” grumbles Tim Klüssendorf, spokesman for the Parliamentary Left in the SPD parliamentary group. “However, he should not forget that as Federal Finance Minister he is first and foremost part of a federal government led by the SPD,” he says star.
In other words: traffic light team play looks different.
In fact, Lindner’s comments seem more like a nod to the liberal batten. In any case, the coalition partners are unlikely to rally behind many of his initiatives. Sometimes it goes against the Greens when the FDP leader questions the timing of the coal phase-out. If he expresses doubts about the retirement age, the comrades can feel addressed. A selection of headlines, without any claim to completeness:
Lindner, Lindner, Lindner. The FDP leader is on constant air, obviously in attack mode. But also in the election campaign?
“It was a volcanic eruption this week”
The FDP party conference is coming up in two weeks. The annual meeting of leadership and rank and file serves – like all parties – to determine where we stand and to reassure ourselves. Who are we, what do we want? The boss has already outlined some answers to the members and (regular) voters in the block that are intended to flatter the liberal soul. Irritation from the coalition partner is factored in. So far, so usual.
“This week was a volcanic eruption of financial and social policy issues that the finance minister communicated to the country,” says SPD budget politician Andreas Schwarz star. It almost sounds appreciative, but: “Whether each of these suggestions serves to solve problems, set boundaries or look for a bride remains in the eye of the beholder.”
From the SPD’s perspective, the suspicion is understandable. Many of Lindner’s advances, rhetorically flanked by top FDP personnel, particularly trigger the comrades. For example, Lindner suggests tax relief for the working middle class – because citizens’ money has been increased “massively and disproportionately”. He is calling for a three-year moratorium on social spending so that money can be invested in defense. Or insists on compensating for inflation-related tax increases (cold progression) – from which top earners in particular would benefit. None of this warms red hearts.
And so to Finance Minister Lindner, the Vice-Vice Chancellor and cabinet member. Away from Party leaderwho believes his FDP is on the demoscopic edge, especially in this super election year.
Quite a few in the FDP are dissatisfied with the government alliance, as has been shown not only by a close member survey in favor of the coalition. Lindner had early on defined the FDP’s role in the coalition as a corrective against the “left” and had already emphasized major differences between the traffic light parties a year and a half ago – for example in the stance on the debt brake, to which the Liberals are adamantly sticking. The SPD and the Greens, on the other hand, are committed to extensive reform.
This situation has not changed to this day. However, given the current circumstances, things could get really messy when it comes to the financing issue. Finance Minister Lindner started the negotiations for the 2025 budget without the usual benchmarks, but with upper limits for the ministries. All ministries must explain by April 19th how they want to implement the austerity requirements in order to comply with the current debt rules and close what appears to be a double-digit billion dollar hole. Tough distribution battles are emerging.
“The 2025 budget will be a big challenge,” says SPD budget owner Schwarz. He advocates focusing on modernizing the debt brake “and not on a welfare state reform, which Lindner is aiming for.” The MP believes that it is a strong welfare state that holds society together and that Germany cannot “economy to meet the challenges of the times.”
Financial politician Klüssendorf sees it similarly. He literally draws a red line: “The idea of cutting the welfare state to the ground in a time of social upheaval does not become more correct even with repeated presentation and is not compatible with social democracy,” says the SPD politician. Since Lindner cannot do magic or override the laws of mathematics, he is responsible for identifying solutions to finance the state.
Lindner thinks so. He hammered in the next peg, this time in the “Handelsblatt”-Interview. “The debt brake will be voted on in the next federal election,” he said. So: There’s nothing to be done with him for now.
The Finance Minister recommends concentrating on the matter. The federal government must agree on a budget and a concept of how the economic downturn can be overcome, he said. Then the “speculation” would also disappear that the FDP could get out of the traffic light.