As of: March 25, 2024, 10:59 a.m
By: Franziska Schwarz
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Split
Kubicki (r.) criticizes Merz's thoughts on new elections.
© dts news agency/Imago/Montage: IPPEN.MEDIA
A federal election on September 22nd – also in the interest of the FDP?
CDU leader Friedrich Merz is facing headwinds from the Liberals.
Berlin - Friedrich Merz's new election statements and his musings about black and green are stirring up the traffic light coalition.
FDP Vice Wolfgang Kubicki, for example, sharply countered the CDU leader.
It is quite embarrassing that Merz “in a touch of megalomania wants to decide for himself when the Bundestag should be re-elected,” Kubicki told the
Funke
newspapers this Monday (March 25th).
The Vice President of the Bundestag added: “Apart from the fact that the FDP is not planning an exit, it would be prepared even for such an unlikely event.”
Merz told the
Funke
newspapers at the weekend: “The FDP knows that if it stays in the coalition, it will be thrown out of parliament again in the next federal election.” “If the traffic light fails because of their massive differences in the budget, that is the fault “The black-green option that was believed to be dead is back on the table,” commented the
Munich Merkur
on Merz’s new election plans.
New elections?
Kubicki approaches Merz about surveys on the K question
Kubicki replied to Merz: “The much more exciting question is whether the Union now wants to go into a federal election for the second time with a candidate who many people in the country reject and who, above all, large parts of his own party do not like ?”
An allusion to recent surveys: In the “K question”, Merz is currently far behind CSU boss Markus Söder.
According to a survey from last month, a majority of Germans reject the black-green coalition - to Söder's delight.
New traffic light elections?
“The Union is always prepared”
There were other reactions.
SPD parliamentary group vice-president Dirk Wiese told
Welt am Sonntag (WamS)
: “To carelessly talk about new elections in this situation shows, above all, that Friedrich Merz has never had government responsibility in his entire political career - and that that is a very good thing. “
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The parliamentary director of the Greens, Irene Mihalic, told
WamS
: “People see through the fact that Friedrich Merz is once again dedicating his statements to party tactics instead of the challenges of this country.”
Thorsten Frei, managing director of the Union faction, defended Merz.
“In view of the poor condition of the coalition, it would be downright negligent for the opposition not to seriously prepare for a new election scenario,” Frei told
Welt
.
The Union is “prepared at any time” for early elections.
Traffic light coalition in dispute: These are the points of contention
The traffic light coalition argues, among other things, about support for Ukraine, which is attacked by Russia, in particular about the delivery of Taurus cruise missiles.
In contrast to the FDP and the Greens, Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) strictly rejects this.
The statement by SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich about freezing the war in Ukraine also triggered criticism from the other two coalition partners.
(frs with AFP)