It is remarkable who Christian Lindner attacked a few hours before his renewed candidacy for the FDP presidency and who he spared. Anyone who expected the party leader to work his way through the Green coalition partner or even to continue the trouble within the federal government was disappointed. All in all, Lindner used a rhetoric on Friday that is hardly known from him at party conferences.
When it comes to energy supply, Lindner swears by the “functionality of the state, economy and society”, praising Germany’s achievements and global responsibility, which is appreciated more abroad than in Germany.
The FDP leader devoted himself extensively to foreign policy, speaking with the language of a Western statesman about Russia’s war against Ukraine, highlighting Education Minister Stark-Watzinger’s visit to Taiwan and calling China a “systemic rival”.
Against German “velvet paws”
Germany should never “allow liberal values to be bought off for good business”, demanded Lindner, and lamented the former German “velvet paw” in dealings with China. (He did not name Angela Merkel, nor did he mention the current BASF boss. He also left unmentioned his last personal party conference speech in 2019 at the same place. We remember: Lindner began it in Chinese at the time, while behind him in huge letters, in FDP yellow , the Chinese word “economic policy” was emblazoned.)
Daniel Friedrich Sturm is head of the capital city office of the daily mirror.
With so much verbal commitment to Lindner’s German foreign and security policy, the question arises: Was it actually a smart move by the FDP to leave all these responsibilities to the SPD and Greens in the 2021 coalition negotiations?
Cheerleaders and wingers? That was once
Calmly, matter-of-factly, without any polemics, Lindner made his points on which there is dissent in the coalition, keywords heating modernization or child safety. Lindner as a whip and winger? That was once. When Lindner explained the parliamentary procedure for legislation or how a coalition works, he sounded almost like a social studies teacher. Governing is fun. He referred to his participation in meetings of the International Monetary Fund “in Washington” a little too often and pregnant with meaning.
Since Lindner largely dispensed with his once biting mockery, it was all the more interesting who became the victim of his sharp tongue when he showed it again: It wasn’t Robert Habeck or Annalena Baerbock, but Markus Söder and the Union parties. The Bavarian Prime Minister even forbade hugging trees during the pandemic, Lindner claimed. “Södern” in Bavaria stands for “politics according to mood, mood and time of day”.
The CSU leader ruled according to the motto “camouflage, tricks, deceive”. Clearly pleased and malicious, he devoted himself to the latest tax policy ideas from the CDU, i.e. an inheritance tax and a higher top tax rate that will take effect later. In an alarming tone, Lindner described the consequences of such a policy, for example for medium-sized companies.
So the FDP senses a “unique selling point” here, as Lindner himself called it. In fact, strategically not bad at all for the Liberals, especially coming from a government with SPD and Greens. There is still no reason to ring the death knell for the FDP.
