Status: 04/17/2023 5:02 p.m
The FDP wants to send one of its most prominent federal politicians to Brussels. The defense expert Strack-Zimmermann is to become the top candidate in the European elections. There should also be a change in the leadership circle of the party.
Before the federal party conference that begins on Friday, the FDP state chairmen have agreed on defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann as the EU’s top candidate.
According to media reports, the Düsseldorf native will be the front woman in the European elections next year. The agreement of the country heads was therefore made in the morning. Strack-Zimmermann had brought the desire for the EU top candidate himself to party leader Christian Lindner. She had to be nominated by a federal party conference.
Strack-Zimmermann distinguished himself as a Scholz opponent
Strack-Zimmermann is chair of the Defense Committee in the Bundestag and is known for passionately and publicly arguing for her goals and – as with arms aid for Ukraine – also defying Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The FDP youth organization Junge Liberale had publicly nominated her for the Brussels post and praised her as a “cosmopolitan, courageous and assertive politician”.
The “Rheinische Post” was the first to report on the personnel decision. According to information from the newspaper, the liberals in the EU Parliament must become stronger. Germany needs a combative personality in the European Parliament, since Ursula von der Leyen’s Commission relies too much on bureaucracy and too little on the market economy. In the last European elections in 2019, the FDP came to 5.4 percent under its top candidate Nicola Beer.
Stark-Watzinger is to become FDP deputy leader
A change is also planned in the leadership circle of the party: At the party conference at the weekend, Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger is to be elected FDP vice-president.
Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger confirmed her candidacy for one of the three vice-posts of the party on Twitter. The liberal European politician and previous FDP vice chairwoman Beer will forgo this post. In the future, Beer will represent Germany as Vice President on the Executive Committee of the European Investment Bank.
Stark-Watzinger wrote on Twitter that as FDP deputy leader, she wanted to promote educational policy issues in particular: “Advancement through education and innovation as drivers of growth and prosperity are crucial for Germany’s future.”