FDP deputies gather in Munich. (Archive image) © IMAGO / Future Image
The state elections in Bavaria and Hesse are scheduled for October. In Munich, FDP deputies from all over Germany meet and call for a turning point.
Munich – The FDP is rallying to break a curse. Since time immemorial, the liberals in Bavaria have never managed to stay in the state parliament for more than one legislative period. Will it be different for the first time this year? As support, almost exactly four months before the election, all FDP deputies from all parts of the republic are now coming to Munich for a meeting.
More than 100 parliamentarians have agreed to attend the two days, starting with party leader Christian Lindner, his ministers and Bundestag parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr. The situation is not particularly rosy. The review of the 2022/23 state elections, in which the FDP was roughly plucked almost everywhere, can hardly be ignored in the strategy consultations. The traffic light participation in Berlin is costing the FDP sympathy. Until the state elections in Hesse and Bavaria at the same time, the Liberals must reverse this trend. Slipping below five percent in both countries would probably have uncontrollable consequences in the party as well.
FDP wants a turning point before the elections in Bavaria and Hesse
In the "Tonhalle", one of Munich's concert venues, the FDP wants to turn up the volume a little louder. The focus is on a demand paper on location policy, a draft of which is available to our newspaper. It is not worded in a riotous way, but it can cause further friction in the coalition and rebuttals from the opposition CDU/CSU. The FDP parliamentarians are calling for a tax reform with lower rates and simpler rules for citizens and companies. The debt brake should remain. There is to be a "rehabilitation offensive" for the roads, and the splitting of operations and infrastructure for the railways. "Whoever sows infrastructure will reap prosperity," the liberals write.
Every major city and district is to have a "Welcome Center" for immigrant workers, where the authorities bundle all offices for rapid recognition procedures. All common administrative procedures in German authorities should also be able to run in English. In energy policy, the FDP MPs are calling for a new legal framework and subsidies for commercial research into nuclear fusion technologies.
FDP wants to stop downward trend and score points in state elections in October
Other highlights from the FDP's plans include the call for a "Health Data Use Act so that data can be better used for research purposes in Germany". And: Geothermal energy is to be expanded; also the extraction of lithium.
"We urgently need a turning point in location policy so that Germany can get back on the growth path," says Bavaria's FDP top candidate Martin Hagen. Among other things, "in addition to the expansion of power lines and renewables, it is also important to have maximum openness to technology, for example for geothermal energy, all forms of hydrogen and research into nuclear fusion". His Hessian colleague Stefan Naas also says: "In order to maintain the competitiveness and innovative strength of our state, the framework conditions must improve. " A Lindner keynote speech is scheduled for Friday. The meeting ends at noon on Saturday. (Christian Deutschländer)
