Lindner has to deliver: FDP calls for a clear edge against climate ideologues before the Epiphany meeting
Created: 04/01/2023 18:22
By: Jens Kiffmeier
Less green, more liberal: Before the Epiphany meeting, the FDP election campaigners are demanding better demarcation in traffic lights.
Can Lindner deliver?
Berlin – awakening instead of falling: the FDP meets every year on January 6th for the Epiphany meeting.
Happy tidings are then sent out into the country from the Stuttgart Opera House.
But this time it's about everything.
Because the Liberals are starting the super election year 2023. And after bitter defeats in the last state elections, the party cannot afford any more defeats in Bavaria, Hesse, Bremen or Berlin.
The election campaigners have therefore written a position paper - and party leader Christian Lindner has made clear specifications.
And not everyone in the federal government should like it, reports kreiszeitung.de.
Epiphany meeting of the FDP: More nuclear power, less taxes - election campaigners from Hesse and Bavaria present a position paper
"2023 must bring the trend reversal for the Free Democrats," wrote the FDP top candidates from Hesse and Bavaria, Stefan Naas and Martin Hagen, shortly before the Epiphany meeting.
In their position paper, which they sent to the federal executive board and which was available to the
Handelsblatt
, they call for a better profile within the traffic light coalition.
The party must "show a clear edge against a climate ideology hostile to growth and capitalism," it said.
Fracking, extending the lifespan of nuclear power plants and lowering income taxes should no longer remain taboo.
Gets a clear order before the Epiphany meeting in Stuttgart in 2023: FDP party leader Christian Lindner (FDP) should assert himself more in the traffic light coalition.
© Bernd Weißbrod/Kay Nietfeld/dpa/Montage
After election flops: FDP wants to send a signal to break out in the opera house in Stuttgart on January 6th
From Friday, the FDP will come together for their traditional Epiphany meeting in Stuttgart.
The atmosphere at the base is tense.
Because the overcast year was not going well for the Liberals.
After starting as a junior partner in the federal government, electoral defeats rained down in series.
In Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia they were kicked out of government, in Lower Saxony they even failed at the five percent hurdle.
And the FDP also recently experienced a crash in the federal trend.
Many FDP politicians blame the practical constraints in the traffic light coalition.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) had to massively expand debt policy because of the energy crisis and the Ukraine war - instead of fighting it.
The liberals bowed to the pressure from the SPD and the Greens and pumped hundreds of billions into the Bundeswehr, into three relief packages and into the reform of citizen income.
Since this has not yet been reflected in the voters' favour, many liberals voted for a clear demarcation within the traffic lights after the defeat in Lower Saxony.
Nuclear power, fracking, income tax: party leader Christian Lindner is to sharpen his profile after the Epiphany meeting in 2023
"In order for the FDP to get back on the road to success in 2023, it has to sharpen its profile," warned the campaigners in Hesse and Bavaria.
How is that supposed to work?
With more "pure FDP".
Specifically, Naas and Hagen propose several topics with which the liberals should distinguish themselves after the Epiphany meeting in 2023 and show little willingness to compromise: fracking, extended nuclear power plant operating times, reform of income and corporate tax, compliance with the debt brake and controlled immigration.
also read
Ukraine expects more explosions in Russia – Explosive report on CIA involvement
READ
After Putin's New Year's speech - mystery about the blonde woman in the background
READ
Grotesque New Year's Eve show on Russian state television: "Gentlemen, Russia is expanding"
READ
CSU wants super bonus for saying goodbye to oil heaters
READ
Baerbock's China lesson from Russia's failure: "Don't drive on sight so irresponsibly again"
READ
Fancy a journey of discovery?
My space
The suggestions are not entirely new.
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) has been annoying the Greens for days with his loud calls for a comeback of nuclear power in Germany.
Finance Minister and party leader Christian Lindner (FDP) has already publicly flirted with reducing income tax for everyone and insisted on compliance with the debt brake from 2023. But when the SPD and the Greens declared themselves willing to negotiate if the liberals would reactivate the wealth tax, Lindner pulled his offer off the table again.
State elections in Bavaria, Hesse and Bremen: FDP fears defeats in the super election year 2023
Against this background, the position paper that has now been published can also be understood as a wake-up call.
Of course, as a junior partner in the coalition, you have to make compromises, write the authors from Bavaria and Hesse.
Nevertheless, this should not mean that liberal positions are no longer recognizable.
Therefore, the very own FDP positions would have to be made much clearer.
In Bremen, where elections will also be held this year, one should share this assessment.
In any case, the election campaigns will be challenging for the Liberals.
In Hesse, an opinion poll by infratest dimap saw the FDP at six percent.
In Bavaria, according to Forsa, the party only got three percent at the same time.
These prospects should not necessarily brighten the mood in the Stuttgart Opera House.
(
jkf
)
