FDP start of the year
Epiphany meeting of the Liberals in times of crisis
The Epiphany meeting of the Liberals will be a tightrope walk for party leader Christian Lindner: He has to defend the continuation of the traffic lights in front of the members – and distance himself from the SPD and the Greens (archive photo). photo
© Christoph Reichwein/dpa
The Epiphany meeting of the Liberals will be a tightrope walk for party leader Lindner: He has to defend the continuation of the traffic lights in front of the members – and distance himself from the SPD and the Greens.
A few days after the very close vote FDP members for staying in the traffic lights, the Liberals are meeting today (11 a.m.) for their traditional Epiphany meeting in Stuttgart. Among others, Federal Chairman Christian Lindner and Secretary General Bijan Djir-Sarai will speak at the Stuttgart State Opera.
In the FDP member vote, 52.2 percent voted to continue the traffic light’s government work. 47.8 percent wanted to end the alliance. According to the statutes, the party leadership is not bound to the result. It’s just a mood picture.
FPD in poll low
Lindner viewed the outcome of the member survey as a clear mandate to “continue to show a liberal profile in government actions.” The FDP is currently at a low point in surveys – the values were recently around five percent.
For more than 140 years, the Liberals have started the new year politically on January 6th in the southwest. In 1866, a forerunner of the FDP, the Württemberg People’s Party, met in Stuttgart for the first “Epiphany Parade”.
Statements from Lindner on the federal budget situation could also be exciting. The Federal Finance Minister had already rejected calls from the SPD to suspend the debt brake due to the tense flood situation in parts of Germany.
Kubicki wants “reason-oriented politics”
FDP Vice President Wolfgang Kubicki sees his party’s task as implementing a “sensible policy within the traffic lights”, especially in migration, economic and energy policy in the almost two years until the federal election.
“The broad turn away from the coalition parties by people is mainly based on the fact that they have the impression that there is a completely wrong focus,” Kubicki told the “Rheinische Post”. “The task of the Free Democrats will be to fill this representation gap again – if in doubt, even in conflict with the coalition partners.”
Young liberals are self-critical
The federal chairwoman of the Young Liberals, Franziska Brandmann, expressed liberal self-criticism to the broadcaster SWR before the Epiphany meeting: “We have dealt with ourselves a lot in the last few months, and I believe that we should now draw a line under it in the new year and should say: From now on it’s about what solution do we have to offer for this country? And we still have a lot to offer.”
Brandmann told the Editorial Network Germany (RND): “We have to make a stronger name for ourselves in education policy, but also in pension, social and transport policy.” The FDP ministers in the federal government also have a duty here. “Of course the ministers are involved in the coalition discipline, but they also have a political stance that they have to represent aggressively.”