Former FDP chairman Christian Lindner announced that he plans to attend the FDP federal party convention scheduled for late May in Berlin. He confirmed this to the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”.
Regarding the internal power struggle over the party’s future direction, Lindner stated that he advocates for collaboration between candidates Henning Höne and Wolfgang Kubicki. When asked which individual was better equipped to guide the party out of its crisis, Lindner remarked, “Ultimately, both are necessary”. The former Federal Finance Minister further added that issues of direction and power cannot be left unresolved. He emphasized that “the prerequisites for any comeback are clarity of the offering and public interest in it”.
Lindner believes that the prolonged commitment to the “traffic light” coalition following the Federal Constitutional Court’s 2023 ruling on the budget was the root cause of his party’s current crisis. “From my perspective, the mistake was that we tried to continue as the traffic light coalition for too long after the Federal Constitutional Court’s ruling” Lindner said. According to the ex-minister, this situation led to disputes and stagnation, even though the factual basis for the alliance no longer existed. Nevertheless, he concluded that “the political space for a liberal force remains unchanged”.
