parties
FDP politicians want higher hurdles for member surveys
In the last member survey there was only a very narrow majority in favor of remaining in the traffic light coalition. photo
© Daniel Karmann/dpa
The approval of the FDP base for a continuation of the traffic light coalition was narrow. A proposal will be submitted to the next federal party conference to increase the requirements for such surveys.
The FDP should have a higher hurdle for future Member surveys decide. In order for these to be accepted, the consent of two and a half percent of the members should now be required instead of the signatures of 500 members, according to an application that has been approved for the FDP federal party conference in Berlin at the end of April.
Currently that would correspond to around 1,800 members. The proposal is intended to change the instrument of the non-binding member survey that was included in the statutes in 2015. In the last member survey there was only a very narrow majority in favor of remaining in the traffic light coalition.
Nölke speaks of a “warning shot”
In the FDP member vote, 52.2 percent voted to continue government work with the SPD and the Greens. 47.8 percent wanted to end the alliance, as the party announced at the beginning of January. 26,058 of the approximately 72,100 members took part in the survey. One of the initiators of the member survey, Matthias Nölke, spoke of a “clear warning shot”.
The application to change the statutes states that the member survey should ensure that opinions within the party are obtained in particularly important cases. In 2015, the party had around 50,000 members and 500 members corresponded to around one percent of the membership.
“The party has now grown to over 72,000 members. The 500 members set at that time now only correspond to around 0.69 percent of the membership,” it continues. It is necessary to switch to a percentage quorum in order to do justice to the growth in membership. The application comes from members of several state associations.