Economic turnaround now – the FDP party conference should only have this one central message. Can get boring. If there weren’t a few free spirits out and about.
The political situation in his party is dramatic, as is the country’s economic situation – and yet FDP leader Christian Lindner is looking forward to a relaxed weekend. The Liberals meet at the federal party conference in Berlin. Two days of lively debate, nothing more. There are no elections coming up. There are no hastily formulated urgent requests.
So will these be two boring and expectable days? Maybe not after all.
Unlike last year, when the heating dispute dominated everything, the FDP leadership properly orchestrated the run-up to the party conference. The Presidium has decided on a 12-point paper that summarizes with the necessary clarity what Lindner has been demanding in interviews for weeks. Reduction in bureaucracy, tax cuts, work incentives.
The party congress should only send a signal to the coalition partners of the SPD and the Greens: We are very, very serious about the “economic turnaround”.
But now there are enough free spirits in the Party of Freedom who can give a weekend a spontaneous boost. The star asked three of them: What do they expect from the party conference? And what are they planning to do themselves?
Frank Schäffler – the rebel out of service
He knows this question that journalists often ask him: What are you planning now? That’s why Frank Schäffler has to laugh on the phone. “I don’t have anything revolutionary in mind,” he says, referring to the party conference. He hopes for clear words about the coalition and a “fighting speech” from Christian Linder.
Schäffler appears deeply relaxed. His regional association in North Rhine-Westphalia has just elected him as deputy boss. Not a bad career for someone who once divided the party as a “Euro-rebel” and who now occasionally poses a bit of opposition in the government in the Bundestag with a group that calls itself “Otto’s Heirs.” Schäffler likes what his party leadership wrote down this week. “The key proposal is sharply worded, sharper than last year.”
Sharper than last year? Who could judge that better than him? At that time, large parts of the party were dissatisfied with the heating law, as planned by the Green Economics Minister Robert Habeck. And the criticism expressed by the FDP leadership at the party conference was not clear enough for many liberals. Schäffler sensed this and wrote an urgent request. With great success: his line shaped the party’s offensive and argumentative communication in the following weeks.
Schäffler wants to spontaneously see when and on what topic he will intervene in the debate at the weekend. It is important that the economic policy proposals are linked to the upcoming budget negotiations. “No budget without an economic turnaround!” he says. And the off-duty rebel almost sounds as if he wants to personally take care of it if in doubt.
Franziska Brandmann – the young liberal
This Sunday will be a very special day for Franziska Brandmann. The leader of the Young Liberals (Julis) is turning 30. And what could be nicer than celebrating his birthday at an FDP federal party conference? Well, congratulations!
One day before, at the start of the party conference, Brandmann wanted to send out a message with a small photo campaign and symbolically show Labor Minister Hubertus Heil, SPD, the red card. “The pension package in its current form cannot be financed in a way that is fair to all generations.” But that is exactly what the coalition agreement stipulates. “We are therefore calling for renegotiations,” says Brandmann.
Heil has only just agreed with Finance Minister Lindner on the so-called pension package II, which the July boss is now criticizing. The SPD has ensured that the pension level remains stable. The FDP receives the generation capital with which the state invests money for old-age provision on the capital market for the first time. So when Brandmann – supported by party vice-president Johannes Vogel – calls for rapid renegotiations on pensions, one could understand that as criticism of Lindner’s negotiating skills. Whether the Finance Minister will understand it that way is one of the more exciting questions before this weekend.
In any case, Brandmann wants to speak out immediately after Lindner’s speech on Saturday afternoon. And she will also request that the passage on pensions in the main motion be worded more clearly. “This party conference must focus on the economic turnaround.” She expects that no one opens up sideshows.
Thomas Kemmerich – the man whose name must not be mentioned
This man won’t care what the boss of Julis expects. Thomas Kemmerich, short-term Prime Minister of Thuringia, has set his own goal for the party conference. “I want to do a little advertising for the East German election campaign and our special situation.” This is a sentence that would not be worth mentioning in any other party. In the FDP, however, it is a small declaration of war.
Kemmerich is running again as the FDP’s top candidate in the state elections in Thuringia. He and his regional association receive no financial support from the federal party. Since Kemmerich accepted the election as Prime Minister in 2020, he has been considered an outsider in the party. For the FDP presidium he is persona non grata.
He doesn’t seem to care much. Kemmerich wants to speak up from the stage and explain how he sees things. In the state elections in Thuringia, the democratic center will be defended, he says. “We need all our forces on the side of the Free Democrats so that we are not crushed by the extremes of left and right.”
Kemmerich is counting on support from many regions of the country. “Everyone in our party is free to say: I’ll come over and do the election campaign with you.” He likes his party’s 12-point paper. But the Thuringian state leader warns that the FDP must now take action in government. Otherwise the question arises: “Does it still make sense to continue in this government?”