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FDP leader Christian Lindner (on May 19 at the SPIEGEL interview): Recently elected as chairman and top candidate with 93 percent
It was only recently that there was public speculation about a second term in office for Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Now the FDP party leader and top candidate Christian Lindner is holding out the prospect of help from his party.
"The FDP would support him," said Lindner on Wednesday in the SPIEGEL "top talk" with Markus Feldenkirchen.
The prerequisite for this, however, is that Steinmeier agree to a second term in office.
The election of the current office holder or a new candidate in the Federal Assembly is due in February 2022.
Steinmeier belongs to the SPD, but lets his membership rest during his term of office.
Christian Lindner was re-elected as chairman of his party at the digital FDP federal party conference in Berlin.
Lindner, who has led the party since autumn 2013 - at that time the FDP flew out of the Bundestag for the first time in its history - sees no "approach of political fatigue" in himself.
On the contrary.
When asked what he would do after the end of his political career, he "still has the feeling that I'm just starting out".
As his personal "ambition" for the federal election, he said that this time he would become stronger than the AfD. The "party of liberality" should come before the "party of resentment," according to Lindner. In 2017, the FDP had achieved 10.7 percent, while the AfD was the strongest opposition force in the Bundestag with 12.6 percent. In surveys, the FDP is currently between 11 and 12.5 percent.
FDP Vice Wolfgang Kubicki had even given third place as his goal at the party congress last weekend. Kubicki, according to Lindner, is always "very sporty". The aim of the FDP is to bring about changes in the country, for this it is not important whether the party becomes a third party. For the FDP it is about becoming so strong that black-green or a red-red-green coalition can be excluded. Regarding possible coalitions - except with the AfD and the Left Party - he said that his party was "independent and open". And: "In terms of political content, we look at what fits and what would be the best constellation for the country."
Lindner renewed his accusation against the Green Chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock that she had not yet spoken out clearly against a red-red-green coalition option. Anyone striving for chancellorship in Germany must also say how she feels with the left-wing top candidate Janine Wissler, "a declared Trotskyist."
Lindner defended his statement at the federal party conference last weekend, according to which there would be no new burdens for employees and companies with his party - except for large internet corporations like Google, Apple and Amazon. "That was what I meant," he said. You can rely on the FDP. "In a high-tax country like Germany, it would be foolish to increase the burden," he said, referring to the tax plans of the SPD and the Greens. He found it "fruitful" to lead this discussion in the election campaign. The FDP is convinced that the "major investments in the transformation of our economy must come from the private sector."
When asked whether he would like to go into the opposition for four years in the event of failed coalition negotiations, Lindner said: “That is a hypothetical question, because I have the impression that everyone involved is very interested - if they need the FDP - too to form a majority with the FDP. "
Lindner also defended his party's decision to reform the public broadcasting system.
The motion was passed, against the will of the party leadership, with a narrow majority of only six votes at the digital party congress over the weekend and included in the election program.
He could live with it, but would still have considered a different approach advisable, said Lindner.
Lindner on the criticism of Böhmermann
It would have been better if one had spoken of a "dampening" of the radio license fee, he said and recalled that in 2017 the election program had included the halving of the public radio license fee. Now it has become the demand to reduce it. That is "much more realistic".
In response to the criticism of the ZDF presenter and satirist Jan Böhmermann, who attacked the party in several tweets after the FDP's decision and brought it close to the AfD, Lindner noted that Böhmermann was not properly informed. He referred to the deviation of the new resolution from the FDP election program 2017. "We are now much tamer compared to before, Mr. Böhmermann will not have known that," said Lindner. "Perhaps," he noted, looking at his latest Twitter posts on the FDP decision, "sometimes a somewhat spontaneous reaction is not the last word."