In response to the FDP’s nationwide member survey about the traffic light, a cross-generational open letter from Bavaria promotes remaining in the federal government. “We are not a party that runs away from responsibility. And no one likes people who run away from responsibility,” write the honorary chairwoman of the Bavarian FDP and former Federal Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger and the head of the Young Liberals’ youth party, Tobias Dutta. The letter was also written by Martin Zeil, Bavarian Minister of Economic Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister from 2008 to 2013.
The letter says: Who would vote for the party that voluntarily gave up the field and left it to others without a liberal compass in new elections? We have to “stand up for our positions with a straight spine” and continue to initiate reforms in the “huge modernization backlog” that we found in 2021. Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger, Dutta and Zeil fear: “An FDP that wants to settle comfortably in the opposition and has nothing to offer other than criticism is also uninteresting for liberal voters.” We are therefore appealing to members to reject the exit from the traffic lights.
Since the beginning of the week, FDP members have been able to vote on the end or future of traffic light participation upon request from the rank and file; However, the vote will not be binding for the Federal Executive Board. The FDP in the Free State of Bavaria obviously suffered particularly from the loss of image among its voters as a result of Berlin’s government work – it was thrown out of parliament in October and ended up with only three percent. During the course of the 2023 election year, state leader Martin Hagen demonstratively did not want to place himself in a traffic light camp in Bavaria and went into the state elections with an open mind, also with sympathy for a possible coalition with the CSU.
Hagen himself, who has recently led the regional association with Katja Hessel, Christian Lindner’s parliamentary state secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance, had already voted for the traffic lights at the beginning of the week. He understood the frustration with the alliance and shared it to some extent, he told the SZ – when it came to the question of whether to vote with his gut or with his head, he ultimately chose his head. An exit would “not solve any problems, neither in the country nor in the party.” And early elections could even become a “threat to our existence”. For him, better policies and better performance are the path to take.
Previously, an incendiary letter from former state leader Albert Duin to FDP federal chairman Lindner caused quite a stir. “People expect a government to make their lives easier,” he wrote – the opposite is the case with traffic lights. “The chaos that has arisen due to completely exaggerated, purely ideologically driven ideas, especially from the Greens, is making people angry.” Duin spoke of “insanity”, and he blamed the green Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck for “cluelessness”.