Cool instead of cold – how Lindner turns the tables on the Greens in the traffic light

When the FDP chairman stands in front of his troops today, he sees closed ranks. The grumbling of the past few months has turned into a purr. The liberal battalions are not euphoric, but satisfied. They will not salute their leader, but will follow. Christian Lindner is the measure of her things at the moment.

This unity is not a product of chance, but the result of a course correction whose elegance lies in the fact that it was not publicly perceived as a correction. The genesis for this can be broken down into six parts:

Sign of vitality through biofuel

1. The FDP has sent a sign of its vitality to its supporters by asserting e-fuels as the new biofuel and accelerating over 100 motorway construction sites. The option for further development of the internal combustion engine and the commitment to the future of individual transport gives the automotive industry (and motorists) breathing space. The core message is that the FDP remains the party of those who want to maintain industrial value creation in Germany.

Lindner breaks away from Chancellor Scholz for the first time

2. The Finance Minister broke away from Olaf Scholz for the first time with the significantly oversized new building of the Federal Chancellery (“I believe that (…) a new building next to the Chancellery that costs at least 800 million euros is unnecessary”). This independence in detail is not sufficient for the recognition value of an FDP chairman, but it is a necessary prerequisite for success.

The trick of this withdrawal movement was that it was not abrupt and harsh, but smooth. In this way, Lindner ensured that he did not lose his most important partner within the government. Or to put it another way: Lindner has marked his terrain without soiling the Chancellor’s plot.

First stop signs for shadow households

3. In fiscal policy, the idea of ​​a money flow policy seemed to have passed from the ECB to the government. In addition to the official budget, the shadow budgets proliferated. With the 2023 budget, Christian Lindner began putting up stop signs: up to here and no further was his message to the big donors in all departments. This stop sign was necessary in order to save the solidity of state finances and the core of the FDP brand.

FDP is no longer a one-man show

4. The FDP is no longer perceived as a one-man show. Diversity comes into play in Berlin through the profiling of the transport minister, who shows his staying power in close combat with the Greens, and the angular appearance of defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann.

The heckling from Kiel by FDP Vice-Chairman Wolfgang Kubicki also helps in perception, as long as they do not damage the chairman’s authority. The party leader as a freelancer – that was a narrowing of the range that the liberal public could not appreciate due to its genetic code.

Lindner’s cuddle alliance with Greens was a beginner’s mistake

5. It was a beginner’s mistake to enter into a kind of cuddle alliance with the Greens and to sell a yellow-green circle of friends to the public through private selfies. This was perceived by the audience as self-betrayal. This error has now been corrected by the power poker in the coalition committee.

The audience doesn’t want to cuddle the FDP, they want to see them fight. Christian Lindner is also chosen because he is not Robert Habeck. Incidentally, the same applies to Robert Habeck. In this respect, the rookie mistake was a common one.

Cold instead of cool

6. And something else is added. At the beginning of their joint reign, Robert Habeck was the easy-going philosopher, the politician explainer, the gentle rebel, who suffered so terribly from the present that one wanted to hug him. Christian Lindner, on the other hand, seemed cold to many viewers, not cool.

Reversal of roles with the Greens: The FDP is alive

But there was a role reversal. Lindner remained calm and mischievous despite the Greens’ daily bans and debt provocations. He managed to get Olaf Scholz on his side. Robert Habeck, on the other hand, you can literally watch when he’s beating himself up. He got tangled up. He seems overwhelmed and ungracious, sometimes bitchy. His star no longer twinkles.

Conclusion: The FDP is alive. It has found its tone and its unique selling point in the new edition of a social-liberal coalition, which will remain a social-liberal coalition even if the Greens are involved this time. If Lindner is lucky, the delegates will thank him today. A party leader’s bonus is his re-election record.