Renewal of the promise of social advancement, real climate policy, the “only party in the middle class capable of action”: If you listen to FDP leader Lindner, it almost sounds as if the FDP wants to make the other parties superfluous.
At first glance, Christian Lindner is just the same. As in the previous year, the traditional Epiphany meeting of the FDP had to be downgraded to an online event due to corona, as almost always the party chairman speaks freely – unlike at the digital party congress in December, also in the passages that deal with the pandemic.
However, Lindner is not the same person who a few months ago was in opposition to the Corona policy, the Greens, the SPD and the Union – in that order. The fact that the break is only noticeable at second glance is due to the fact that Lindner has been using statesmanlike-moderate rhetoric for some time. Disparaging remarks, such as those in the big final three days before the election, when he commented on remarks by Green leader Annalena Baerbock on climate policy with an “Oh God, oh God”, were already a rarity in the late summer.
They have now completely disappeared. The reason is obvious: Lindner has switched from the opposition to the government, into a coalition with the SPD and the Greens. The almost one-hour speech is Lindner’s first as Federal Minister of Finance in the Stuttgart State Opera. The appearance has five acts. First the FDP chairman talks about the “other crisis strategy” of the traffic light coalition in the Corona policy, then about Germany as a country of immigration, about “the renewal of the promise of social advancement” and about the “prosperity and growth issue” climate protection and finally about financial policy.
In the Corona act nothing of the fundamental criticism of Wolfgang Kubicki can be heard, but that was the case a year ago. It was possible, says Lindner, “to cope with the fourth wave without overwhelming our health system”. The FDP was “also criticized” for its corona policy. He turns this criticism into praise: “Can you actually underline the importance of a liberal ruling party more clearly if you accuse it of being particularly sensitive to freedom and the proportionality of measures?” Even in the Omikron wave, the aim of the FDP remains to “largely prevent” lockdowns.
“The only party capable of acting in the middle class”
It is thanks to the FDP that the decision on compulsory vaccination in the Bundestag “is not made along party and parliamentary lines”. In this context, Lindner repeats his sentence that the FDP is the “only party of the bourgeois center capable of action” that will also take into account the concerns of Union supporters. “But we cannot fulfill this concern.” As a key witness he quotes the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, the classic leading medium of the conservative bourgeoisie. This had in one comment Written on the compulsory vaccination, “with their thoughtfulness” the FDP is doing “a service to democracy”.
In his passages on migration policy, Lindner emphasizes that it is not a question of ensuring more immigration, but rather of “qualified immigration”. He knows that many have the expectation that a lot is happening with humanitarian immigration, says Lindner. This is a concern of “our friends from Alliance 90 / The Greens”. But that can only be done if Germany “concludes workable return and migration agreements with other countries that work in practice”. In other words: if you want more immigration, you also have to deport more.
The formula of the “Friends of Alliance 90 / The Greens” is new, and at Lindner it sounds like a mixture of closeness and ironic distance. There is no direct criticism of the coalition partners, whom Lindner had accused of “drifting to the left” during the election campaign. On the contrary: In acts three and four, Lindner appropriates the central themes of the SPD and the Greens by redefining them liberally. He calls the promise of promotion “one of the greatest challenges of socially just politics”. However, it is not about redistribution, but about “recognition”. Lindner explicitly mentions “the thought of respect” that is inherent in the new government policy. What he does not say: That this term was at the center of the election campaign of SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz.
Lindner rejects nuclear power
Lindner does a similar thing with climate protection. The discussion about this has so far been “strongly influenced by culture”. According to Lindner, this debate has changed completely, a real “transformation” has taken place since the federal election: “Who still talks about the speed limit, who still talks about small-scale bans in everyday life? Today we are talking about billions of investments in ours Infrastructure. ” Investments which, of course, should primarily come from private sources.
Lindner promises “solidarity support” to households that have to spend a disproportionate share of their income on the increased energy costs. In the long term, everyone should be relieved through the abolition of the EEG surcharge and the planned climate money. “But we also have to act at short notice,” emphasizes Lindner.
Regarding the dispute over the EU Commission’s planned classification of nuclear energy as sustainable, he says that each member state of the European Union decides for itself about its own energy generation, “and that deserves respect”. However, nuclear energy may be low in CO2, but it is anything but sustainable. If this is disregarded, “there would be a distortion of competition”. And Lindner makes it clear: “For Germany, nuclear energy is not an option anyway.” Some dreamed of it, but, the FDP boss asks: Where would there be operators, investors or insurers who would take over the financing? “An energy source that can only be established if the state is liable,” does not make sense from a market economy perspective.
Lindner sets “hope” in Merz
In the final act of tax policy, Lindner once again clearly differentiates itself from the Union. Former Chancellery Minister Helge Braun said the debt brake had to be overridden. “I cannot approach this alternative.” On the other hand, he offers the Greens, with reference to a statement by the Baden-Württemberg Finance Minister Danyal Bayaz, to talk again about the relief of small and medium incomes.
In the epilogue, too, the Union was given a swipe. Her speakers in the Bundestag often speak of the “left-wing yellow coalition”. Then “Left-Black would rule here in Baden-Württemberg,” notes Lindner pointedly. He put “hope” in the designated CDU chairman Friedrich Merz, claims Lindner. But here too he has a few questions for the Union: Will it denounce the FDP’s compromises, will it now demand what it has not been able to achieve for 16 years? Or is “a real future talk” possible with the Union? That doesn’t sound really hopeful. In any case, the FDP has no interest in “alienating itself from the CDU and CSU” – not even with a view to the upcoming state elections, after which black and yellow should be continued in North Rhine-Westphalia and Jamaica in Schleswig-Holstein.
Both Christian Democrats and Social Democrats and Greens are competitors, but also potential partners, says Lindner. In short: it makes a difference “whether free democrats share responsibility or not”. That is the core of his whole story. The old Lindner saying that it is better not to govern than to govern wrongly has definitely had its day.