Two more years leader of the Liberals.
(Photo: IMAGO/serienlicht)
Berlin The FDP has confirmed its chairman Christian Lindner for another two years in office. At the federal party conference in Berlin on Friday, 88 percent of the delegate votes went to the 44-year-old. Lindner has been at the head of the FDP since December 2013.
Lindner received 511 of the 579 votes cast. 51 delegates voted no, 17 abstained. Lindner thanked “for this special back strengthening”. When he was elected two years ago, he had received 93 percent. However, this was a few months before the federal elections – in other words, in a situation in which the base usually stands as united as possible behind the party leadership.
In a 90-minute speech, the head of the FDP and Federal Minister of Finance had previously called on the coalition partners SPD and Greens to economize in order to comply with the debt brake and get high inflation under control. He ruled out tax increases.
Lindner drew clear boundaries with the Greens, especially in climate and energy policy. The sector targets within the Climate Protection Act were a mistake, emphasized the Federal Minister of Finance in his keynote speech, which was greeted with standing applause.
If, for example, Transport Minister Volker Wissing had had to comply with the goals set for his department, “in a few years one would have had to think about driving bans”. The majority of the population would reject such draconian measures. Instead, it is now possible for the individual sectors – industry, energy, buildings and transport – to support each other in order to achieve the climate goals.
Lindner expresses regret about the shutdown of the nuclear power plants
Lindner also defended his memorandum on the cabinet decision for a building energy law. This is a completely normal process. And he is certain that the draft, for example for the replacement of gas and oil heating systems, will still be changed in the parliamentary process. In general, an economically sensible and socially acceptable path must be taken, Lindner warned with a view to the Greens.
Big things are about to happen in energy policy, said Lindner. He regretted that coal was burned in Germany to generate energy and that safe nuclear power plants were shut down. At the same time, he praised his FDP colleague Wissing for preventing a general ban on combustion engines in Europe from 2035. It is important to ensure openness to technology in this field as well. He announced his intention to treat e-fuels like e-cars in tax law.
Christian Lindner (M), FDP federal chairman and federal finance minister, is congratulated next to Bijan Djir-Sarai (r), FDP general secretary, on his re-election as FDP federal chairman at the FDP federal party conference.
(Photo: dpa)
In his speech, Lindner did not show a way out of the budget dispute within the traffic light government, which had been deadlocked for months. The consultations are still intense. Priorities must now be set, for example for defence, because many things that are desirable are simply not financeable at the moment, said FDP leader Lindner. Social security needs to be addressed as well.
In the past ten years, the previous governments, especially the grand coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD, have increasingly expanded state services. Next year, the state as a whole will probably have tax revenues of over one trillion euros for the first time. Nevertheless, the money is not enough to meet all legal obligations. “Now the boomerang of the unsound CDU financial policy is coming back,” said Lindner. Because many services are not sustainably financed. For this reason, the debt brake is not a fetish, but is constitutionally and economically necessary.
With regard to basic child security, Lindner pointed out that a lot had already been done for children. If he were faced with the choice of whether there should be additional transfer payments or concrete investments in education when funds were scarce, then he would advocate strengthening education.
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