In the dark times of the FDP, chairman Christian Lindner is optimistic. However, the young liberals are demanding solutions and a breath of fresh air. Image: IMAGO / Political Moments
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It’s up and down for them FDP.
In the Federal election 2021 the liberals were flying high. For the second time in a row they won a double-digit number in a federal election Result show. The party was in the fast lane, especially when it came to the proportion of first votes. According to experts, the FDP was the most successful party among first-time voters.
FDP party executive meeting the day after the 2021 federal election: It was good to laugh at Christian Lindner.Image: imago images/Political Moments
The high case: FDP conceded five election slippers since traffic lights began
On the evening of the 2021 federal election, FDP chairman Christian Lindner announced that the Liberals had “achieved one of the best election results in their history”. Two years later comes the big bang in the Berlin repeat election. The Liberals fail at the five percent hurdle. The numbers are in the basement – and not for the first time.
After the fifth unsuccessful state election the Free Democrats are faced with the question: what is going wrong at the moment?
The FDP is overshadowed by the traffic light coalition
“In the traffic light coalition, the FDP has not succeeded enough in becoming visible as a ‘bourgeois party’,” says political scientist and author Benjamin Höhne. This has structural, personnel, content and party-organizational reasons.
According to the party expert, the FDP is hardly perceived with its own positions or leaves an ambivalent impression: What does the FDP stand for in the war in Ukraine and the arms deliveries? What is your position on transport policy issues?
According to experts, the FDP has not positioned itself sufficiently in transport policy.Image: imago / Stefan Zeitz
“Wasn’t it the case that she first put on the brakes on the Germany ticket and then later took up the cause?” asks Höhne. He also thinks that the FDP, as the smallest party in the three-party traffic light alliance, does not find it as easy to be perceived structurally as the two larger partners SPD and greens.
FDP base probably still strangers to the traffic light coalition
According to Höhne, FDP politicians in government are ranked behind the two popular Greens, Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock. For the SPD, Chancellor Olaf Scholz is in the foreground. The expert says:
“In terms of party organisation, my impression is that the liberal party base is still unfamiliar with the traffic light experiment. Habitually, many liberals see themselves closer to the Union than to the Social Democrats or Alliance Greens.”
The expert says that you should only ever drive through traffic lights with the handbrake on. So it is noticeable that Lindner also points the finger at the traffic light coalition after the bitter election result for the FDP in the Berlin election.
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Lindner highlights election defeat from red-red-green
According to Lindner, the Berlin election has federal political implications. In the press conference At the end of the Berlin elections in 2023, he announced that this left-wing alliance was not able to gain points in Berlin. In other words: was unsuccessful. In Lindner’s view, the SPD, Greens and Left Party have “lost enormously in popularity”. That should probably give the traffic light coalition food for thought. He says:
“SPD, Greens and Left Party have lost enormous popularity. The FDP has undoubtedly not been able to benefit from the mood of change, that’s clear. But the election result, that we had a traffic light coalition together here in the capital, is also political Conclusions needed for traffic light policy in Berlin.”
Christian Lindner at the press conference on the result of the re-election to the Berlin House of Representatives.Image: dpa / Sebastian Gollnow
Nevertheless, Lindner is optimistic about the future
The FDP is still “guarantee for a politics “Let others think about bans, shackles, tax increases and new debts, we’ll make sure that the country stays in the political center,” says Lindner. According to him, the FDP is sticking to its strategy, with which things are looking up again should go.
He lists three points that the FDP should use to achieve success again in state elections:
- We point out that Germany is well governed.
- We have a number of liberal modernization projects that we are working on.
- In the traffic light coalition, we guarantee centrist politics.
“The surveys for the FDP at federal level show a stable situation,” says the liberal finance minister and party leader. He also points to the membership development of the FDP in February, which is very positive. “All of these are indicators that, in principle, we have a solid foundation,” says Lindner.
Liberals want to hold on to FDP top candidate Czaja
The Liberals will also continue to hold on to Sebastian Czaja, who ran as the FDP’s top candidate for the Berlin House of Representatives elections. He is visibly shocked by the outcome of the election.
“The electoral defeat is deep,” he writes on Twitter. He sees the result primarily as a “personal defeat” and takes all responsibility for it. Following the meeting of presidency the FDP says Czaja: “We started to stabilize or expand the election result of 2021. We didn’t succeed.”
However, if the FDP has its way, Czaja should not throw in the towel. According to Lindner, his party colleague remains a strong personality among the Free Democrats, on whom they will continue to build in the future.
Visibly upset, FDP top candidate Sebastian Czaja appeared before the press after the election defeat. Image: dpa / Sebastian Gollnow
Czaja announced on Twitter that his mood was still clouded at the moment. But he’s looking forward to everything that’s to come. “Because what defines us together is our optimism and firm belief in a better future, as well as the courage to keep thinking things anew,” he writes with the hashtag “#BleibenWirMutig”.
Are the young Liberals (July) just as optimistic about the future after the series of election failures? For the national chairman of the Julis, Franziska Brandmann, one thing is certain: Something “is fundamentally wrong.”
Young liberals expect competence instead of riots
In conversation with the “Mirror” Brandmann lets her frustration run free. “The fact that we have now lost another state election may invite one or the other in the FDP to call for more riots,” says Brandmann. The result triggers humility in her.
Federal chairman of the Julis, Franziska Brandmann, calls for solutions to get the FDP back on the road to success.Image: dpa / Michael Kappeler
If voters in Berlin – a city where so much is going wrong – apparently cannot imagine the FDP as a problem solver, something is fundamentally wrong.
She further says:
“Every single member of the party should take this as an opportunity to think about which political solutions he is currently bringing to the party and what part he has in the party’s solution-oriented appearance.”
The July boss expects competence instead of riots, self-reflection instead of a bite reflex – and will also stick to it herself.
State chairwoman of the Julis Berlin calls for a movement of departure
The state chairwoman of Julis Berlin, Cristina Turbatu, also shares her disappointment with the election result. For them it is a major setback for organized liberalism in Berlin. When asked by watson, she says:
“Our ambition for this election was to form a Senate with a strong FDP in the future. Therefore, the election result is of course a bitter disappointment for us. We are nevertheless firmly convinced that the FDP and we Young Liberals have the right solutions for the problems of these have city.”
According to her, the liberals must not now fall into “paralyzing fear and internal self-pity”. “By the next elections, we have to create a new movement of awakening that renews ourselves,” says Turbatu. It is time to show the people in Berlin that a strong FDP is urgently needed to lead the capital into the future.
It is a shock for the Berlin SPD: On Sunday, Berliners voted and, for the first time in more than 20 years, elected the CDU to head the state parliament, the House of Representatives. And with a resounding success.
