The event hall in Berlin, where the FDP has held its federal party conferences since Christian Lindner led the party, is a fairly flat building. That doesn’t quite fit with the message that the head of the Liberals wants to convey to the more than 600 delegates in the former post station on Saturday. He brought two graphs to support his argument. And the direction plays this out on the portrait-format screens to the left and right of the stage. One represents the potential growth in Germany, the other the placement in the location ranking. Both curves point steeply downwards – even steeper, as if they had appeared behind Lindner on the very wide video wall.
When comparing competitiveness, the Federal Republic fell from sixth place in 2014 to position 22. And the potential growth in this country is just 0.5 percent. A few years ago it was 1.5 percent; today in the USA it is 2.0 percent. Lindner supports these figures with an experience from the recent meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington. IMF head Kristalina Georgieva presented the medium-term prospects for the development of the global economy to finance ministers and central bank heads. “Look, this is Berlin,” France’s central bank chief whispered to him. While Georgieva lectured on weak growth, Friedrichstrasse was shown. “I’m used to grief,” Lindner exclaims, but he swore to himself that it shouldn’t happen again.
Of course, Lindner also has the antidote on offer. “If a country falls from sixth place in competitiveness to 22nd place in ten years, what is more urgent than a turnaround?” The economic turnaround that his FDP announced with a twelve-point paper from the party leadership last Monday. With his speech at the Epiphany meeting in Stuttgart, where Linder spoke of a “dynamization package for the economy”. And of course with the key motion that the party conference wanted to discuss in the evening. The leader of the Free Democrats has already placed many of the points publicly in recent months.
:What really matters
Of course, the FDP wants to sharpen the party’s economic policy profile with its proposals to stimulate the economy. But you are serious about the demands; they are not just party conference rhetoric. This could become a big problem.
This did not fail to have an effect, as the deputy party leader, Federal Minister of Education Bettina Stark-Watzinger, was pleased to note at the opening of the party conference. “It hasn’t been discussed so intensively and in detail for years Economic policy is being discussed like it is these days,” she said. If the coalition partners get upset at the traffic lights, if there is speculation about a break in the coalition – the Liberals are happy to accept that in order to set the agenda.
The FDP not only wants “made in Germany”, but also “make it in Germany”
Lindner then begins a one-hour tour d’horizon that goes beyond the twelve points of the presidium. He paints a picture of the coalition’s efforts that are already contributing to the economic turnaround, such as the Skilled Immigration Act, but also describes what still has to come. Not only must “made in Germany” be made easier, but “make it in Germany” must also not be allowed to put hurdles in the way of talent coming to Germany from abroad.
He advocates “sober realism that describes what the situation is and has the courage to act.” Lindner is more of a statesman. He takes a stand against the coalition members. With biting, frontal criticism, however, he targets the Union, especially the Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU leader Markus Söder. It is not the sound that connotes a break in the coalition.
Some would accuse the economy of singing lamentations, says Lindner, obviously referring to Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He, on the other hand, is of the opinion that warnings about competitiveness should not be ignored. But when Söder says that the future perspective for Germany is the grand coalition, then “I remember the results of the last one,” shouts Linder. He sees CDU Chancellor Angela Merkel and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as responsible for the downward curves.
Greater prosperity is important for social cohesion, says Lindner
Economic strength is the basis of geopolitical strength, Lindner explains – supporting Ukraine against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression, as well as the Bundeswehr’s own ability to defend the country and alliances, is a task for decades and generations and cannot be done on credit take place. Economic growth is also essential for the social climate, the Liberal leader continues. In a stagnant society, one person can only improve his life if something is taken away from someone else. This leads to “hard-fought elbow competition”. A growth perspective is therefore also “a requirement of social justice”.
The economic turnaround is also an investment in the political legitimacy of the economic and social system, indeed “the best democracy promotion law you can have” – a swipe at the Greens and Family Minister Paus, who is working on a corresponding draft law.
Lindner also addresses the core conflict in the coalition, whose main job is Federal Finance Minister and is currently busy preparing the federal budget for 2025. There are two schools of thought, including in the federal cabinet, he said: on the one hand, the demand for more public funds, additional debt, special programs to provide subsidies for selected industries, technologies and companies. And on the other hand, the FDP, which relies on market competition, inventiveness, and entrepreneurial risk-taking to determine the economic structure, and not government officials.
Another swipe at Scholz
But he has had “bad experiences” with the “constitutional expertise of the SPD,” says Lindner, referring to the Constitutional Court ruling on the Corona special funds and demands from the Social Democrats to declare another emergency and suspend the debt brake – that, too, is a swipe at the Chancellor Scholz, who came up with the construction of the special funds later collected in Karlsruhe in addition to the regular budget when he was finance minister. But there are also moves to discontinue the debt brake in the CDU, Lindner added, referring to the Prime Ministers, not least Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner.
This highlighted the Free Democrats’ unique selling point, for which the party sees broad support among the population. 54 percent of respondents rejected it in recent surveys a weakening of the debt brake. The FDP also sees itself encouraged by the polls when it comes to calling for reforms to citizens’ money. It is not social to “ensure that people can afford unemployment,” but rather that more people get into work.
“You can discuss our proposals, even in coalition,” says Lindner – of course he knows that the twelve points will not be implemented one-to-one. Ideas about reducing bureaucracy are probably more likely than the abolition of pensions at 63 or an end to subsidies for solar and wind energy. We also welcome other people’s suggestions. There’s just one thing he’s not open to: “It would be irresponsible for nothing to change,” says Lindner to the cheers of the delegates.
In the tried and tested division of labor, Lindner leaves it to Wolfgang Kubicki, the party vice president who is never at a loss for clear words, to formulate the message a little more drastically. “If people don’t talk, there will be no future for the coalition,” he says. If the Greens declared that they would simply file away the FDP’s demands, and the SPD leader Saskia Esken said that they wouldn’t even talk about it, “then we have a fundamental problem,” he warned. Everyone knows this from their own relationships: If you stop talking to each other, the foundations of the relationship are at an end.