parties
FDP begins federal party conference – call for “economic turnaround”
“Disputable in Europe”: The FDP party conference around Lindner (lr), Strack-Zimmermann and Djir-Sarai could cause trouble in the traffic light coalition. photo
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
The weakening FDP wants to sharpen its profile at a party conference. Is she heading towards an end to the traffic light coalition? The coalition partners warn not to overdo it.
With the call for a “real economic turnaround” and a policy aimed at economic recovery FDP started its federal party conference. At the meeting in Berlin, the more than 600 delegates also want to chart the future course of their party in the traffic light coalition with the SPD and the Greens.
“Our country is currently not competitive,” says the party conference’s lead motion. “The economy is stagnating like no other industrial country. Excessive bureaucracy, high energy prices, high levels of taxes and duties as well as an acute shortage of skilled workers are significantly slowing down the German economy.” At the same time, “an oversized social budget puts a strain on the financial resources of the state and society.”
The FDP chairman and Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner will speak at lunchtime. A speech by the FDP’s top candidate for the European elections, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, is expected in the afternoon.
Warnings from the SPD
Before the FDP party conference, SPD leader Saskia Esken invoked the commonalities of the coalition project and warned the Free Democrats against raising doubts about cohesion. “In view of the current international crises, it would be contrary to state political responsibility to weaken the German position by questioning the coalition,” Esken told the editorial network Germany (RND).
She added: “We still have a lot of plans to do together. And despite all the differences, you shouldn’t forget that a lot of things will be decided and implemented without any arguments.” The SPD leader referred to the founding idea of the traffic light alliance: “We formed this coalition with a lot of courage – and also out of state political responsibility. The idea was that very different partners could advance the country precisely by putting their different ideas together .”
What could still boil up
At the party conference, vice-chairman Johannes Vogel wants to fuel another smoldering coalition fire: by calling for a revision of the pension package, with which the government wants to introduce a share pension and keep the pension level stable. The coalition agreement stipulates that the so-called holding line for pension levels “must be secured across generations,” he explained. “I am therefore requesting that we demand corrections at the party conference.”
Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) and Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) presented the so-called pension package II at the beginning of March. Vogel would like to push the planned development of a capital stock on the stock market towards a real stock pension based on the Swedish model. He also questioned the so-called pension at 63. He had already put forward his proposal at the end of March and received criticism from the SPD.
On the “web.de” portal, Vogel justified the sometimes heated arguments between the coalition partners. In the future, parties with very different positions will have to form coalitions more often, he said. Under such conditions it is unrealistic for “debates to take place behind the scenes alone”. “We are dealing here with a change in our political culture.”