Axel Schmidt (52) is the name of the new direct candidate of the FDP München Land for the Bundestag election next year - and thus the successor of the late Jimmy Schulz.
Equal opportunities, education, innovation and digitization are topics that Axel Schmidt from Oberhachingen wants to promote nationwide.
But in his opinion there is also a lot to do at home in the district, as he explains in an interview.
Evil tongues speak of the FDP as a party of high earners. You are a high earner too. Why should a common worker still vote for you?
For the first six years of my life, I lived in a basement apartment with my single mother who was a teacher.
I financed my studies on my own and enabled my advancement myself.
Ascent is possible for everyone.
It is important that hard work pays off.
Diligence and intelligence must count more than origin.
If someone achieves a lot, he should also be rewarded.
To lie down in the hammock and say that the others will take care of me - that is not my philosophy.
They want everyone to be able to afford to live in the Munich district. How does that work?
The state has to intervene a little in the market.
There must be social housing and structures that enable people to live here.
But it must also be possible for people to live in their own home.
This currently requires a lot of equity.
We used to have instruments to promote home ownership.
But the tax deductibility of interest would also be an instrument.
In America, 70 percent of the people live in property because you can deduct your own home for tax purposes.
What does it mean to you to be liberal?
Liberal is the opposite of authoritarian.
I am an anti-fascist in the best sense of the word, but also an anti-socialist.
We have two really terrible regimes behind us that have operated on the margins.
And now, unfortunately, these edges are strengthening again.
The middle is very important.
And within this middle we are the ones who emphasize freedom the most.
But not unconditional freedom.
Your own freedom always ends where the freedom of the other begins.
If you look at the polls, the FDP has had better times. What is it?
Three years ago we had the zeitgeist issues of digitization and modernization fully on our side.
Then came Friday for Future and the big zeitgeist topic of climate protection.
Then came Thuringia and finally Corona - and in times of crisis people look to the government in which we are not represented.
In addition, we in the FDP are too fixated on one person and will have a larger team.
I am convinced that things will look up again and that the value of a force in the center will be recognized.
We have a great concept with the Bürgergeld: a basic income, but not an unconditional one.
Axel Schmidt
Did some topics miss out?
Yes.
There are two issues that I would like to revive that are very liberal: on the one hand, the ecological market economy.
With Genscher and Baum we already had Environment Ministers in the 1970s, we developed the ecological market economy in the 1990s - that is, market-based instruments for ecological problems - but we did not consistently market and pursue them.
And the second is the social.
We have a great concept with the Bürgergeld.
A basic income, but not an unconditional one.
It replaces many other transfer payments such as HartzIV, BAföG or basic pension.
So a detoxification of the welfare state, whereby nobody falls by the wayside.
But - as Westerwelle once said - we have to protect the weak from the lazy.
That is also my credo.
Your predecessor Jimmy Schulz was very popular - what do you take with you on your election campaign?
What he leaves is a great legacy.
How he dealt with his illness - unbelievable.
And he was very brave.
He was the first to illegally read his speech from the iPad ten years ago in the Bundestag.
What a scandal that was.
This iPad is in the Museum of German History today.
As a liberal, you sometimes have to question borders.
Speaking of limits. You are calling for corona restrictions, but with moderation. What does that mean in concrete terms?
Take the risk seriously, but also ramp up the economy.
I have no understanding that we are playing football games with 30,000 fans in Budapest and at the same time cordoning off all of Hungary for the citizens there.
And also not for celebrating big parties in closed rooms.
I am in favor of distance rules, masks.
But I don't see a complete lockdown.
You have to react locally - and always question the rules.
We need more tangential connections in the district.
Axel Schmidt.
Which topics would you like to push in the district?
Housing construction.
Greater cooperation between Munich and the surrounding districts is needed.
Nobody wants to build housing on their own doorstep, but the problem can only be solved together.
In addition, we are suffocating in a traffic collapse.
We need new concepts.
More tangential connections, not just ring bus lines.
I could imagine a suspension or magnetic levitation train in the middle of the A 99.
Also cable cars that connect the places.
More sharing offers.
You have to become much more flexible.
Perhaps you will soon be spending a lot of time in Berlin. What will you miss most there?
My wife and the grounding by my family and friends.
I'll still have my home at the weekend.
And you can get Bavarian beer in Berlin too.
