Berlin Christian Lindner doesn’t want to linger too long on the electoral defeat of the Liberals in North Rhine-Westphalia. “Yesterday was a sad evening, today is a new day,” said the FDP leader after a meeting of the party executive committee. The grief in Düsseldorf about the end of the black and yellow state government should not burden the future work in the Berlin traffic light coalition too much.
The FDP fell to 5.9 percent in the election in the most populous federal state, a drop of 6.7 percentage points. After the poor performance in Schleswig-Holstein, this is the second failure in a row. And the question is: How harmful is the traffic light coalition in the federal government for the FDP?
“The traffic light coalition was never our dream,” Lindner replied. The party leader combined this with the line previously agreed in the presidium meeting: Now it is important to keep calm. The FDP is governing with the SPD and the Greens out of “state political responsibility”, because a different constellation was not possible at the time due to the state of the Union.
How difficult the government with SPD and Greens is for the FDP has now been shown once again in NRW, and the internal analysis quickly agreed. Nobody says that publicly. Instead, Lindner makes do with a change of perspective: “The traffic light is good for the country,” said the Federal Minister of Finance. That is why the FDP formed this government.
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And that’s why the liberals shouldn’t get nervous after the election defeats and make work at the traffic lights more difficult, that’s Lindner’s message to his own people. “The focus now is not on the party-political interest of the FDP,” said the party leader. Consequences in the federal government? Lindner: “No.”
>> Read here: A comment on the performance of the FDP in North Rhine-Westphalia: The FDP does not deliver what the voters promised from it
“We don’t have time to deal with ourselves in depth,” warned the FDP chairman. In times of “war and crisis” one must “keep the country stable and successful”. The Minister of Finance calls for “predictable government action”. Now the implementation of the coalition agreement continues. “We are faithful to the contract.”
FDP top candidate Stamp: Had great difficulty in mobilizing voters
With reference to country-specific problems, Lindner and his people also declared defeat in the internal meetings. The head-to-head race between Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) and SPD challenger Thomas Kutschaty made mobilization just as difficult as the lack of prospects for the continuation of the black and yellow state government. And then there was the unfortunate circumstance that the FDP provided the education minister in NRW during the pandemic.
Federal politics is also to blame
And yet federal political problems have also contributed to the poor performance. The traffic light is difficult for the FDP supporters, so it is all the more important to “maintain your own profile,” said a member of the federal executive board. That was successful in corona policy, as well as in the defense against tax increases. And Lindner pointed out that the debts in the federal budget would be much higher if he, as finance minister, weren’t constantly saying “no”.
>> See also a video here: FDP top candidate Stamp: Had great difficulty in mobilizing voters
When it comes to many of the FDP’s concerns, however, the traffic light coalition is “on the defensive,” said a liberal. “We have to change that.” In this respect, the coalition is preparing for tougher disputes. It has now become even more important for Finance Minister Lindner to actually implement his repeatedly promised goal of complying with the debt brake again from 2023.
At the same time, there is a warning from the party leadership not to overdo it. The hope is that government participation will pay off for the FDP over time. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Economics Minister Robert Habeck (both Green) are currently the focus of attention, said an FDP government member. That pays off for the Greens.
But that will change again. And for Habeck it will still be difficult in energy policy. Some decisions could then trigger similar resentment among Green voters as the finance minister’s high level of debt is currently causing among parts of the liberal supporters.
In North Rhine-Westphalia, the FDP should now recover in opposition. According to Lindner, there will be no coalition with the SPD and the Greens in Düsseldorf: “The traffic light in NRW would have no internal legitimacy at all.”
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