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Christian Lindner is back in the mood for coalition talks. At the Liberal Party conference in Berlin, the FDP leader said he wanted the Free Democrats to be needed again next year to form a government in the federal government: “If I have my way, we will play for victory.” For people who think freely, red-red-green or black-green or green-red-red are not particularly positive prospects.
Therefore, your party must be open to new coalitions after the federal elections. He noted that his party was already forming a coalition with the CDU, the SPD and the Greens in different constellations. Also in the federal government, the FDP is “ready to take responsibility.”
In his speech, Lindner also promised a “different economic and financial policy” in the event of government involvement, and particularly criticized SPD Finance Minister Olaf Scholz. Next year’s Bundestag election will be a choice of direction: debt or soundness, freedom or moderation of the country, social market economy or planned economy.
No cooperation with the left or the AfD
Lindner ruled out a coalition with the left. And there can be no cooperation with the AfD. He literally said: “We are not forming a coalition with the Party of the Left and there can never be any form of cooperation with the AfD.”
In the face of Jamaica’s polls after the 2017 federal elections, Lindner was self-critical. He admitted that the FDP’s exit from the talks was miscommunicated at the time. And: “We would do some things differently.” Rather than abandon the deliberations immediately, he would have had to stipulate a “two-day break” for his party. Then the public could have discussed in detail the positions of the FDP.
The decision at that time hurt the FDP, but it is not the party’s only problem. Liberals currently rank between five and seven percent in polls. In the 2017 federal elections, they obtained 10.7 percent of the vote.
Lindner also spoke about climate protection and the corona pandemic. He wants to link climate protection more closely with market-based mechanisms, such as the global trade in CO2 certificates. He also came out in favor of an international research alliance to promote hydrogen technology.
To avoid a second blockade, Lindner called for a social effort. Germany would also need “smart measures that reconcile the protection of health with the protection of freedom”, new testing strategies, accelerated digitization of the health system and a strengthening of research and development of vaccines. “We have to be smarter that the virus is dangerous,” said the leader of the FDP. The necessary corona measures must be openly discussed: “In the end, the virus must not triumph over freedom.”
Around 600 delegates gathered in a Berlin congress hotel for the liberal party convention. From the meeting entitled “Awakening of the mission” the signal should come “that the protection of health is compatible with democratic, social and economic life,” said Lindner.
The most important personnel decision is the election of a new Secretary General, which is scheduled for the afternoon. At Lindner’s suggestion, the Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of the Economy, Volker Wissing, applies for the position. Secretary General Linda Teuteberg, who was elected last year, had made her position available under pressure from Lindner.
