Former FDP member Volker Wissing says the party must clarify its substantive direction. “The key question is what offer the party will make to citizens in the future” he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung’s Thursday edition.
Wissing criticizes the party’s current path, calling it a “libertarian course” under party leader Christian Dürr that is simply chasing an alleged zeitgeist. He claims the FDP is moving rightward and that it has no electoral success. According to Wissing, the party looks to blame others for its failures rather than itself-a point he raised while noting his former role as the Liberals’ general secretary.
Both Christian Dürr and Henning Höne, the state chairman of the FDP in North Rhine‑Westphalia, are running for the chairmanship. The party conference, at which the decision will be made, is scheduled for May.
After the collapse of the “traffic‑light” coalition with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Wissing left the FDP and has remained in the cabinet as a non‑party member.
