The promised courage to face the climate crisis with new technologies has disappeared.
(Photo: dpa)
Hardly anything is more difficult to get rid of than a bad reputation – this is especially true in politics. It is really remarkable what FDP party leader Christian Lindner has achieved in recent years. After the party-political Armageddon of his absence from the Bundestag between 2013 and 2017, he changed the image of the Liberals and led the party back into government.
Gone seemed to be the days when the FDP was considered purely a clientele party for pharmacists, hoteliers and top earners. Instead, in the minds of many, the liberals stood for technological progress and innovative new beginnings.
But now that Lindner has led himself and his party back to the top of federal politics, the facade of the new FDP is beginning to crumble. Christian Lindner, the man who once renewed the party’s image, is responsible for this.
The promise of advocating unconditional progress through technology fizzles when, once again, its decisions benefit only a small segment of the population: the drivers of fast cars and the manufacturers of those same cars.
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The most recent allegation that Porsche driver Lindner was in constant contact with Porsche boss Oliver Blume during the coalition negotiations is a symptom of a political attitude that is apparently still at home in the FDP.
Of course, all parties are in constant contact with stakeholders. But the fact that the head of the company that produced Christian Lindner’s private car boasts a dedicated line to the head of the FDP is likely to stick with the party.
Clientele politics instead of the courage to progress
Because the picture that is being broadcast here fits in with the political steps taken in recent months: consistently rejecting the speed limit, giving fuel at the pump tax breaks and enforcing the special treatment of cars with e-fuels at EU level – all these decisions let the FDP appear primarily as an “advocate for motorists”.
However, this only refers to those drivers who do not rely on electric mobility or comfortably trundling small cars, but rather on fast vehicles with combustion engines.
The promised courage to face the climate crisis with new technologies has disappeared. Instead, the liberals seem to be afraid of alienating the high-earning regular voter clientele. But the political calculation does not work: At the moment, the FDP is in polls at just eight percent.
Christian Lindner and his wife Franca Lehfeldt after the church wedding.
(Photo: dpa)
In doing so, Lindner seems to have forgotten the most important lesson: when it comes to image change, what counts most is the power of images. So it may be politically irrelevant that the Federal Minister of Finance celebrated a large and media-effective staged wedding on Sylt, at which the bride drove up in a Porsche. For the image of the party, however, such images are of great importance in times of war and shortages.
Lindner quickly has to ask himself which party he wants to lead in the next general election: an FDP of courageous progress or an FDP of clientele politics for racing car drivers.
More: E-Fuels – an alternative to the e-car or window dressing?