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FDP politician Volker Wissing at the party conference in Berlin
Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / dpa
One year before the federal election, the FDP made a change in the office of General Secretary: The delegates at the federal party congress in Berlin elected the Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of Economics, Volker Wissing, to succeed Linda Teuteberg with 82.76 percent of the vote.
The party announced on Twitter.
At the suggestion of party leader Christian Lindner, the Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of Economics Wissing applied for the post.
The general secretary, Linda Teuteberg, elected only last year, had withdrawn under Lindner's pressure.
Wissing said in his application speech that the country was in an economic crisis.
Germany has already gone through the worst economic crises and achieved an economic miracle.
At that time the country was successful because politicians held back.
"Private before the state"
Creativity of the individual was in demand at that time, not a uniform concept of the state.
Even today, the state must quickly withdraw its fingers from the economy, said Wissing.
Today entrepreneurship is again required.
"Private before the state" is the motto, he made clear.
He campaigned for a "change in economic policy towards more freedom, more flexibility, more freedom".
Wissing sharply criticized the policy with which the grand coalition wants to support the economy in the Corona crisis.
In this context, the Liberal spoke of the "watering can of the grand coalition".
It was "political megalomania to believe that the economy could be permanently attached to the state's drip," criticized Wissing.
"We are going in the completely wrong direction in financial policy - and we are for a U-turn."
In particular, the Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of Economic Affairs criticized the SPD candidate for Chancellor and Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz.
He was "already looking forward to Olaf Scholz's Hanseatic pragmatism," said Wissing - and now Scholz is talking about tax increases.
"An economic crisis is the stupidest time to inflate the state further," warned Wissing.
Around 600 delegates met in a Berlin congress hotel for the liberal party congress.
From the meeting entitled "Mission Awakening" the signal should go out "that health protection is compatible with democratic, social and economic life", said party leader Lindner.
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