FDP is looking for a successor for Wissing: Lindner proposes long-term confidants as general secretary

Created: 12/20/2021, 3:32 PM

Federal finance minister and FDP chairman Christian Lindner (l.), Introduces Bijan Djir-Sarai, the new FDP general secretary, at a press conference.

© Kay Nietfeld / dpa

FDP leader Christian Lindner has proposed Bijan Djir-Sarai as the party's new general secretary.

The member of the parliament is to succeed Volker Wissin.

Berlin - Member of the Bundestag Bijan Djir-Sarai is to become the new General Secretary of the FDP *.

Party leader Christian Lindner proposed the 45-year-old on Monday to the party committees as the successor to Volker Wissing, who has switched to the cabinet as Federal Minister of Transport.

Djir-Sarai, who was born in Iran, was most recently a foreign expert for the FDP parliamentary group and chairman of the NRW regional group there.

He is to be officially elected to office at the federal party conference next spring.

FDP: Djir-Sarai is to become the new general secretary - confidante of party leader Lindner

Lindner * presented his long-time confidante Djir-Sarai to the press as the "right man" for the duties of the Secretary General. For his party, after joining the traffic light coalition *, it is now a matter of "making the FDP recognizable as part of a government and showing that the FDP is an independent force in the political center," said Lindner. The FDP must distinguish itself as a party "that not only works exclusively with these and that parties, but is compatible in all directions".

Djir-Sarai saw his appointment to the top office as a signal for more diversity.

"The topic of diversity is extremely important to me," he said.

"Society has become more colorful. A political party has to reflect that."

About his life story - born in Iran, raised in Grevenbroich - Djir-Sarai jokingly said in front of the press: "You can tell by my name and my accent: I come from North Rhine-Westphalia."

Djir-Sarai is to become the new FDP General Secretary: Born in Iran - grew up in North Rhine-Westphalia

Djir-Sarai was born in 1976 in the Iranian capital Tehran.

He passed his Abitur in Grevenbroich and studied business administration in Cologne.

He joined the FDP in 1996 and was elected to the Bundestag for the first time in 2009.

Djir-Sarai describes his main focus of work in the Bundestag as "prudent foreign policy, genuine common European security policy, digitization of state structures".

The new General Secretary will play an important role in profiling the content of the FDP.

Party leader Lindner * had already announced that after his move to the head of the Federal Ministry of Finance he would rather hold back on party political profiling actions - he now sees this task in the Bundestag parliamentary group and party representatives outside the federal government.

Djir-Sarai said that he would not see himself as a political kneebiter in the new office.

He said that it was clear to him that "occasionally a certain escalation is necessary" in political debates.

But he is "a great friend of treating each other with respect".

He added: "Some would say I am a soft speaker - I would not describe it that way."