Monday, October 18, 2021
Disagreement among traffic light parties
FDP is against strictly equal cabinet
It is an election campaign promise made by SPD Chancellor candidate Scholz: The next federal cabinet should be filled with women and men alike. Leading FDP politicians consider a strict quota system to be the wrong idea.
The idea of a strictly equal representation of the new federal cabinet met with rejection from leading representatives of the FDP. “If you want to reflect social reality in the cabinet, it of course makes sense to have ministers equally in the cabinet. But first and foremost, professional competence has to play a role, because belonging to a gender,” said FDP board member Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann for the newspapers of the Funke media group. During the election campaign, the SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz had promised to fill the new cabinet equally.
The vice-party chairman Wolfgang Kubicki described “rigid quota regulations” as “counterproductive because they reduce people to external characteristics”. “Qualifications and the ability to lead a ministry should always play a major role in appointing cabinet posts,” he said. It is therefore “also possible that there are more women than men in the cabinet”.
As the last of the three parties, the FDP wants to decide on Monday whether to start coalition talks for a new German government. Party leader Christian Lindner firmly expects approval – and the formation of the first traffic light coalition at federal level. “Failure is not an option here,” said Lindner on ZDF. “We need a stable government in Germany. It should also be formed quickly.”