Coalition dispute
Christian Lindner declares loyalty to the traffic lights – and deals against the SPD and CDU
FDP leader Christian Lindner defends his party’s plans for an “economic turnaround”
© Felix Zahn / Photo library / Imago Images
There’s a crunch in the traffic light beams again. This time the reason is FDP initiatives to dismantle the welfare state. Party leader Christian Linder nevertheless praises loyalty to the coalition – and criticizes the Union.
FDP party leader Christian Lindner has rejected appeals from the opposition Union for cooperation or even for his party to withdraw from the traffic light coalition. “The CDU shares responsibility for the situation in this country; this weak growth has not come to us in the last few weeks,” said the Federal Finance Minister on Monday evening on ZDF’s “heute journal” with a view to Germany’s inadequate competitiveness.
The opposition is invited to participate in reforms, but: “I’m not playing coalition games – for me it’s about providing impetus in a difficult economic situation in our country.” He also noticed negatively that the CDU and CSU had blocked the traffic light government’s Growth Opportunities Act for a long time.
Christian Lindner asserts his loyalty to the coalition
Lindner defended the government’s controversial FDP proposals for an “economic turnaround”, which are to be decided at a party conference at the weekend (read: “Citizen’s money and pensions at 63: That’s really behind the controversial FDP paper”). Germany is recording the worst growth among the developed economies – the aim is to get the country back on the path to success. “Everyone has to make their contributions, even in the coalition – I think that’s what people expect from us as a government.” He called the FDP proposals, which were criticized by the SPD as “leftovers from a mothball” and “party conference folklore”, as “balanced and in the interest of our country”.
SPD party leader Lars Klingbeil said in the ARD “Tagesthemen”, the government must “pull itself together” to reach an agreement on issues such as investments, reductions in bureaucracy and energy prices, which are crucial for future economic success. “For that we are now waiting for the FDP party conference. Then we have to get together very quickly and then we need decisions from this government about what to do.” The SPD, Greens and FDP would have to tackle the challenges “as a group”.
The FDP is meeting in Berlin this weekend for its 75th regular federal party conference. Twelve points “to accelerate the economic turnaround” had already caused considerable disagreement in the traffic light coalition. The FDP plans, among other things, stipulate that in the future, recipients of citizens’ benefit will have to immediately forego 30 percent of their benefits if they refuse a job. In addition, according to the wishes of the FDP, the pension at 63 should be abolished and more overtime for workers should be made possible through tax advantages.
Meanwhile, SPD General Secretary Kevin Kühnert issued an exclusive warning star-Interview against playing off economic stimulus and social spending against each other. “We have 800,000 people who receive citizen’s benefit even though they work. Two million households are entitled to housing benefit, many despite working,” emphasized Kühnert. “Better wages for these groups mean savings in the social budget. The Social Democrats are also in favor of shrinking the social budget – just by reducing injustice.”