The downfall of the FDP
The FDP is lying to the German population and its Voters. Yet they don't take responsibility and just keep going.
Latest research from ZEIT revealed that the FDP under the leadership of Christian Lindner has been actively working towards the end of the coalition for several weeks. Publically the Liberals assured that they are interested in finding solutions as they want to maximise the country’s wellbeing. All of that was a farce and it just keeps going. After public pressure the FDP decided to release the paper that ZEIT already talked about. In this paper they planned the end of the coalition under the name of “D-Day” and were talking about “open field battles”. This language just confirms that Lindner and his Party have been living in a parallel universe for a long time in which they don’t care about our wellbeing but instead only about their party and their reputation.
One could guess that the revealing of all of this will lead to consequences inside the party. Especially considering that the leadership has assured that the wording of “D-Day” has not been used until they themselves released the paper. General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai just lied. He resigned as a consequence. Also did the managing director Carsten Reymann resign as the paper was made under his name. Carsten Reymann has been a close ally of FDP leader Christian Lindner for a long time, yet Lindner insists that he didn’t know of the paper and puts the blame on employees.
They just don’t learn
The FDP has lied to the whole country and only two high ranking members resign. Where have we come to that this scandal doesn’t lead to the immediate resignation of the Party Leadership? As a replacement of general secretary Djir-Sarai the FDP will use former Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann. According to ZEIT Buschmann has also been part of the plan to destroy the government coalition. This just shows that the Liberals don’t see their mistake and just keep going.
Lindner and his allies have lost all credibility at this point. Not only are they damaging their own party and reputation. They are damaging other democratic parties and democracy as a whole. The idea that politicians are liars who only care about themselves is being reassured more and more with every day that Lindner and his colleagues do not resign.
Liberal parties are necessary but the FDP in it’s current form is just a burden to German Politics. For the last three years they have shown that they don’t understand some principles of our democracy, such as the willingness to compromise - especially when you are the smallest partner in a coalition. The fact that they then resorted to the solution of purposelly and actively destroying our government shows that they just aren’t ready to take on responsibility in government. All they are able to is talk, talk and talk. When it comes to doing something, they notice that their programme just doesn’t work (investing & lowering taxes without new debt) and therefore want to escape the responsibility as fast as they can. They have already shown that in 2017 when escaping coalition talks with CDU/CSU and Greens.
Lindner lives in another reality
While practically all of our economy is calling for investments and reliability in planning which most certainly is only possible with a reform of the debt brake, Lindner still doesn’t want to move an inch. Even CDU chancellor nominee Friedrich Merz lately said that one could talk about reforms of the debt brake to have more room for investments. Instead Lindner calls to cut social benefits, such as the unemployment benefits by 24€. Is this the Germany we live in now - where you take the last 24€ of the weakest people but don’t even bother to touch the wealth of billionaires? Lindner and the FDP have a very questionable understanding of social justice. This understanding of the world and society is even more reassured when Lindner doesn’t scare away from endorcing Milei or Musk. Both of them are the complete opposite of our liberal democratic values. They endorce a right authocratic way of governing and scream of populism. I believe that Lindner really doesn’t know that he is shifting further and further away from the values his party originally stands for, as his ego is just too high. He and the whole leadership of the FDP should resign. A liberal party is necessary for the German party system but the FDP in it’s current form is just a burden to German politics. With the behaviour they are putting on, it truly would be more than deserved if they don’t make it into parliament in February. Currently they stand at about 4% in the polls and have been losing in practically every state level election there is. Since they were part of the federal government, the FDP didn’t make it into seven state parliaments.