An the day after the heavy defeat in Lower Saxony, the FDP does not want to be the only loser in the federal government. “The traffic light coalition has lost its legitimacy overall,” is the conclusion of party leader and Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner, because the losses of the FDP and those of the SPD were not offset by the gains of the Greens. Not the FDP alone, but the entire Berlin government coalition must therefore “feel challenged”.
But while the federal leaders of the SPD and Greens in Berlin see themselves as winners on that day and limit their worries solely to the loser FDP and its possible counter-reflexes, the FDP chairman somehow wants his coalition partners to be held responsible for the consequences of the election results in Hanover to let.
Although Lindner concedes that the FDP “paid a high individual price” in the state elections, the coalition must “together” think about how to win back the respect and trust of the voters. The FDP chairman already has a suggestion for how this could happen. He says it is important to “adjust the three coordinates” of the coalition “for the time of crisis so that people say, yes, we find exactly those elements in this government”. Lindner can pray the three coordinates like a coalition credo, it is “social balance” for the SPD, “ecological responsibility” for the Greens and “economic reason” that he claims for his own party.
The FDP wants to keep the contentious issue of nuclear power alive
According to Lindner, it is not about changing the positions of the FDP or becoming more recognizable through new demands in the coalition – at least that applies in the short term. The party shouldn’t change its profile, but the chairman thinks it must present it more attractively. This should now happen “planned and with good nerves”. The next federal party conference in about half a year is planned as an indefinite target date for this presentation amendment.
Within the coalition, however, the FDP wants to keep the controversial issue of nuclear power alive. It’s about factual issues, says Lindner, that’s the approach of the FDP. And “not every different assessment of a factual issue is equal to a dispute”. On the question of the continued operation of the three nuclear power plants that are still in operation, the FDP is sticking to its position; current studies confirm that this can have a strong effect on the price of electricity. Lindner said, “that’s not politics, that’s physics”.
At the same time, he made an effort to give the impression that his party wanted to continue to act responsibly in the joint traffic light government. When asked whether he didn’t have to respond to critical voices in the FDP, which called for a more controversial course in the coalition, Lindner said, “I lead the FDP, and my claim to leadership is that I want to avert damage to this country”; it is much more important to make Germany more modern, more digital and more liberal.
In the SPD on Monday, the joy of the victory in Lower Saxony was mixed with the worried look at the inner workings of the traffic light in view of the FDP’s election defeat. Party leader Lars Klingbeil had made it clear on the evening of the election that it would be good for the traffic light in Berlin if the three parties working together in it returned to the Lower Saxony state parliament. One night and the failure of the FDP at the five percent hurdle later, the SPD leader then asked the traffic light partners in Berlin in the Willy-Brandt-Haus alongside Stephan Weil, the winner of the election in Lower Saxony, to join hands.
It became clear that this was not only intended as well-intentioned advice, but also as a condition for continuing to govern together. “It does not strengthen any of the three partners when we have disputes in the government like in the past few weeks,” said Klingbeil. “That has to be over now.” With a view to statements from the FDP that one’s own profile must now become clearer, said the SPD boss, of course he also knows what other times were like in the SPD, in which one discussed after every election defeat whether you now “have to go one step further, whether you have to emphasize your own program even more clearly”.
