The deputy co-chairman of the FDP, Wolfgang Kubicki, is setting his sights high for his candidacy for party leader, aiming for electoral results exceeding ten percent of the vote. According to Kubicki, “initially, I aim to raise the FDP from a place of bitter insignificance after a year, back toward five percent”. Although the party is currently showing slight gains in the polls, he cautions that this does not represent a “Kubicki effect”; he considers the true benchmark to start at six percent, which would clear the necessary threshold. However, his goals stretch beyond that. He pointed out that the FDP achieved 10.7 percent in the 2017 Bundestag elections and 11.4 percent in 2021, stating, “For a combat sports athlete like me, an expectation of anything less is not a real expectation”.
Since he is running for a one-year term as the new co-chairman at the party convention at the end of May, the 74-year-old stated that “at the end of this year, it will become clear whether it has been successful in guiding the FDP out of obscurity”. He added that if the party remains at two percent in the polls next May, “even Wolfgang Kubicki cannot help”.
While he does not view himself as the sole future of the FDP, he expresses a desire for the party to have one. Regarding his rival for the party leadership, Henning Höne, Kubicki believes Höne is not sufficiently known to guide the FDP back onto a stable course. “If I believed that my opponent, Henning Höne, would be as quickly able to make the FDP visible at the federal level as I am, I would say: Go for it. But his recognition level is not yet sufficient. That takes time” Kubicki said.
If elected, Kubicki plans to recommend Höne to serve as his deputy. He diagnoses the FDP’s core problem as “the fact that people have not recognized the party for over a year. But visibility is the first prerequisite for reaching people at all”.
Kubicki also intends to recruit external personalities for the party, noting, “I am already in talks with some people. I cannot say more about that right now” the party vice-chairman commented. He concluded by adding, “But like every political party, we do not suffer from too much expertise”.
On the topic of the AfD, he wishes to engage with them but not collaborate. The Schleswig-Holstein politician stated that he supports a firm political separation from the AfD but not outright exclusion. He argued that “we do not make the AfD smaller by declaring that it is evil and radical right, and that one should not even bother with its arguments. I do not have to hide from the AfD. I am not impressed by them. I will not evade any discussion, and I will address the AfD’s issues. Leaving the EU, abolishing the Euro, withdrawing US troops from Germany-the AfD is simply insane on many points and therefore completely incapable of forming a coalition”.
