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FDP leader Lindner in front of empty stands in the Stuttgart Opera House
Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
When Christian Lindner takes the stage at the Stuttgart Opera House, he still has his mask over his mouth and nose, but the microphone is already on.
At this moment, the viewers of the live stream hear his heavy inhalation and exhalation, reminiscent of the appearance of the villain on "Star Wars" - Darth Vader.
Lindner's prelude arouses associations with a posting by the FDP boss on Instagram.
In spring 2019 he had published a photo under the line "How I see myself - how others see me": It shows him with a light saber, the weapon of the good guys in the science fiction film series, next to it a picture of Darth Vader, the evil villain.
But the role of the assigned villain is not played by the 41-year-old in Stuttgart this time.
Lindner himself has often polarized in recent years, with populist advances, including his rejection of a Jamaica coalition with the Union and the Greens after the 2017 federal election.
Everything is different on Epiphany: Not only is the liberal party people missing in the Stuttgart State Theater, who have been making a pilgrimage to the speech of the respective FDP chairman on January 6th for 75 years.
The top liberal also avoids almost any sharpness towards the rulers in Berlin.
He even spares the greens.
At the beginning of the super election year - there will be elections in six federal states in 2021, in September in the federal government - the Baden-Württemberg FDP chairman Michael Theurer and parliamentary group leader Hans-Ulrich Rülke.
In the spring you will have a decisive choice - against the green-black coalition that has ruled for five years.
Before Dreikönig, Rülke had made it clear how flexible the FDP is: his party could imagine a government in Baden-Württemberg after the election in March together with the CDU and SPD, but also with the SPD and the Greens.
FDP relies on the combustion engine
Unlike Lindner, this time Theurer attacked the Greens - in the federal government.
With regard to the success of the corona vaccine manufacturer Biontech, he said: "Anyone who rejects vaccination and genetic engineering does not belong in the Chancellery", the Greens are not a party to "technological progress".
Where else in the state theater the FDP grandees appear in person, this time there was a mixed program.
The new General Secretary Volker Wissing appeared in a film, as did the top candidates from Rhineland-Palatinate, Daniela Schmitt, and Saxony-Anhalt, Lydia Hüskens.
The parliamentary group leader Rülke was seen several times: in the advertising film near a restaurant closed due to Corona and live on site on the dark stage of the state theater.
The country needs “new impulses”, was Rülke's credo.
In the country of automobile manufacturers and suppliers, the FDP advocates the internal combustion engine, which is to be transferred to an »environmentally friendly future«, operated in future with synthetic fuels and hydrogen.
The planned introduction of the Euro 7 emissions standard in the EU described Rülke as "destroying" the internal combustion engine, speaking of a "morning thaw plan".
A tricky comparison, based on a memorandum drawn up by US Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau in 1944, which proposed the conversion of Germany into an agricultural state, but was quickly rejected.
But apart from such exaggerations, Rülke also remained largely objective this time - like Lindner.
FDP boss Lindner focused on the pandemic for a long time.
Many of the measures in the fight against Corona came too late, delays in the distribution of protective masks and rapid tests in old people's homes were "for me an expression of a political failure with an announcement".
Lindner described the measures agreed on Tuesday between the Chancellor and the Prime Minister to extend and tighten the shutdown as often disproportionate, and not every end justifies the means.
There is no clear perspective for opening schools, and the limitation of contacts in a household to one other person means that “grandma and grandpa” cannot visit their children and grandchildren together.
That is a "step beyond the goal" and should be corrected.
A »regionalization of the crisis management is our chance this spring«, so Lindner and demanded openings in the regions, where this is responsible.
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FDP leader Christian Lindner on stage: Without an audience, without applause
Photo: Sebastian Gollnow / dpa
Lindner, who delivered his speech with occasional glances at a piece of paper, spoke of a "vaccination chaos" and called for a vaccination summit between the federal government and the manufacturers that Germany should "not rule out" a "national emergency approval" for other vaccines.
He also turned to vaccination skeptics, saying that vaccination remains a voluntary matter, but that they should not make their decision "too easy" for themselves, as vaccinations are also a gain in freedom for society.
Using the vaccine inventors Özlem Türeci and Uğur Şahin from the company Biontech, Lindner made it clear why this “success story” was “not representative” for the country.
The case served him as a foil for a complaint by the liberals, which is brought forward in a similar form in variations at Epiphany meetings.
Germany is "no longer a progress-friendly country", nor is it a "business-friendly country", nor is it "an attractive country of immigration".
Türeci's career as a top researcher is also not representative of women, the widespread role models in families would have to be reconsidered, as mothers in the pandemic, women carried special burdens, Lindner indirectly tried to soften the image of an »FDP men's party« this time as well.
In Stuttgart, Lindner made it clearer this time than before that he wants to lead the FDP into government after the federal election in autumn.
The liberals are not only ready to take on responsibility.
"We would like to help write the next chapter in our country's history after the Merkel era."
"We feel like writing the next chapter in the history of our country after the Merkel era"
FDP leader Christian Lindner in Stuttgart
And as if that weren't enough, Lindner also revealed which post he could envision in such a government: »If I were finance minister, there would be no increase in taxes in Germany on the income of employees or those who have jobs in our country create, ”he says.
According to Lindner, the focus of the next finance minister should not be on "how to get more money into the cash register by asking the middle class to cash in".
He announced tax increases for only one category of companies: online companies such as Amazon and Facebook.
You should "make a fair contribution to the financing of our community."
With his comments, Lindner set the bar high.
If the liberals do not improve in the polls, the FDP should have little chance of having a say in the formation of the next government.
However, if coalition negotiations should come about, the hurdles will be lower than last time: Lindner did not make demands that would be insurmountable for the Greens, the SPD or the Union on Epiphany.
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