As of: March 28, 2024, 10:08 a.m
By: Georg Anastasiadis
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Federal Finance Minister Christian Linder (FDP) is now calling for a “welfare state transition”. A comment from Merkur editor-in-chief Georg Anastasiadis. © Jonathan Penschek/dpa/Klaus Haag
FDP leader Lindner's calls for a “welfare state transition” are an attack on the SPD. The traffic light faces fateful weeks. A comment by Georg Anastasiadis.
Is Fritze Merz still right with his prediction of new elections in September? In any case, the Chancellor has had even more reason to be nervous since yesterday: The fact that his liberal coalition friend Christian Lindner is now calling for a “welfare state turnaround” in a categorical tone after the “economic turnaround” can be seen as a frontal attack on the Social Democrats. They have been busy drawing red lines around the social budget in recent months.
Lindner's frontal attack on the SPD - FDP is fighting for parliamentary survival
With his - correct - analysis that the "sharply increasing social spending" is in competition with other epoch-making challenges such as climate protection, education, infrastructure and defense and also with the urgently needed relief for working citizens and companies, Lindner puts the SPD at the beginning of the already tough one Budget deliberations the knife to the chest. In fact, the devastating spring forecast from economic institutes shows how dramatic the situation in Germany is.
Lindner, whose FDP is also fighting for parliamentary survival, needs a political success - or, if the SPD and the Greens do not grant him this, a good reason to terminate the coalition. One that is so valid that it immunizes the FDP against accusations that it is once again shirking its political responsibility after rejecting a Jamaica alliance under Merkel. The FDP leader has been increasing the pressure on the coalition partners for weeks, and it is difficult not to see a copy of the approach of the chief liberals Genscher and Lambsdorff, who used exactly the same script to overthrow the social-liberal coalition including SPD Chancellor Helmut Schmidt in 1982 brought.
Another dispute in the coalition? Traffic light faces fateful weeks
A lot has come together recently. Mützenich's move away from aid to Ukraine, as well as his unnecessarily violent Taurus attack on the FDP and the Greens, has further increased the alienation in the government. There are reports from Berlin that members of the CDU/CSU and FDP meet regularly for confidential discussions. The traffic light is at the latest with Linder's pre-Easter greeting before the fateful weeks. (
Georg Anastasiadis)