Election at party congress
FDP appoints foreign politician Bijan Djir-Sarai as new general secretary
Bijan Djir-Sarai is the new Secretary General of the FDP
© Michael Kappeler/ / Picture Alliance
The FDP has arranged the successor to ex-Secretary General Volker Wissing. At their party congress, the members voted for Bijan Djir-Saai from North Rhine-Westphalia. And a new treasurer has also been found.
The foreign politician Bijan Djir-Sarai is the new FDP general secretary. At the suggestion of party leader Christian Lindner, the federal party conference on Saturday in Berlin voted for the 45-year-old politician from North Rhine-Westphalia. Djir-Sarai is the successor to Volker Wissing, who is Digital and Transport Minister in the new federal government.
He will “never, never, never be an additional government spokesman,” Djir-Sarai said. “My mission is FDP. My mission is a successful FDP,” he said.
FDP chooses new treasurer
A new treasurer has also been found. The member of parliament and transatlantic coordinator in the Federal Foreign Office, Michael Link, was elected to this office. He received 96 percent of the votes at the party conference in Berlin on Saturday. It’s a task “that I really don’t take lightly,” Link said in his application speech.
The 59-year-old trained translator from Heilbronn was a member of the Bundestag for the FDP from 2005 to 2013 and has been a member of parliament again since 2017. From 2012 to 2013 he was Minister of State for transatlantic issues at the Federal Foreign Office and at the same time the Franco-German representative of the federal government.
Link later worked for the OSCE for a number of years. Since March he has been the “coordinator for transatlantic intersocietal, cultural and information policy cooperation” at the Federal Foreign Office.
The previous treasurer, Harald Christ, resigned from office after a year and a half. He justified this by saying that he wanted to take more care of his company and his foundation again.