So far, the FDP boss has not been able to completely convince in Berlin.
(Photo: IMAGO/Rüdiger Wölk)
When the FDP committees meet on Monday, the initial shock of the NRW elections will have been overcome. On election night, the Liberals had to tremble for a long time about entering the state parliament.
At first glance, it looks like an industrial accident. There was no anti-FDP sentiment during the election campaign. The ministers Joachim Stamp and Andreas Pinkwart worked respectfully in the black and yellow government and received a lot of praise for it.
Education Minister Yvonne Gebauer was under constant fire. But which school minister didn’t come under massive pressure from angry parents during the Corona period? The pollsters therefore predicted a result of seven to eight percent for the FDP across the board.
The fall almost below the five percent mark is therefore mainly due to federal reasons. The election in North Rhine-Westphalia is not called the “small federal election” for nothing. The federal trend played a role, as it did for the SPD, which had its historically worst result.
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The bottom line is that after five months of traffic light government, the FDP is not delivering what its voters promised. Once again. That was already the case under Guido Westerwelle, who promised tax cuts that never came. Now history threatens to repeat itself.
The traffic light coalition wanted to bring the country forward with an ecological and social market economy. But the FDP voters see a lot of social and ecological things. But they don’t notice that the FDP is opposed to an all-round carefree package that goes far beyond that.
It’s true, the Greens are clearing everything at the moment. Economics Minister Robert Habeck and Foreign Minister Annalena Habeck occupy the right ministries in the debate about the Ukraine war and independence from Russian oil and gas. You could also make mistakes here, but Habeck and Baerbock take their chance.
The impression prevails that the market economy is not far off
You can’t necessarily say that about the FDP minister. The domestic policy ministries are currently having a hard time getting through to the public. This applies to both the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Research.
But it would be enough if, for example, Transport Minister Volker Wissing did not shoot bucks shortly before the election. The fact that he didn’t immediately deny participating in horrendous subsidies for electric cars is a gross technical error.
The FDP voters saw their impression confirmed: The market economy is not far away at the traffic light, but the state is celebrating a happy birth. The expectations of the Digital Ministry are no longer high anyway. It would be enough if you could make a phone call on a train journey without being disturbed. The digitization of administration has long since degenerated into a joke, and there are apparently no ambitions to end this situation.
The role of defense politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmerman also needs clarification. While the FDP ministers firmly defended Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s cautious line in the debate about the delivery of heavy weapons, the committee chairperson dominated the media public with the opposite opinion. Who is supposed to understand that?
The enabling minister should become a feasibility minister
The party chairman and federal finance minister should also reconsider his role in traffic lights. With Lars Feld, Christian Lindner has brought a proven regulatory politician to his side. The finance minister is opposed to an excess profit tax and tax increases. But the enabling minister should become a feasibility minister who will defend himself against the Greens, who are appearing more and more widely in Berlin.
More on the subject of the NRW election:
The fouls by Economics Minister Habeck never end. When he promises the employees at the refinery in Schwedt that their jobs are safe, he is happy to add: Christian Lindner will pay for everything. Or when it comes to the relief packages for the citizens, he never tires of emphasizing: the Federal Minister of Finance is a clever calculator, he can manage that.
Two of many examples. Some political observers have long suspected that the Greens are delusional about feasibility with taxpayers’ money. The FDP should get back to the feasibility: fewer transfers, more supply-side policies, and a competitive tax system. The liberal electorate still wants a stable currency, serious government finances and no inflation.
More: The CDU wins the election – and could lose everything.