Who would be the better finance minister, will there be a reform of the inheritance tax, will there be a climate ministry? The SPD, Greens and FDP have argued unusually openly in the past few days. FDP boss Lindner makes it clear: This is over now.
After a few days of unusually open and public debates, in which the great harmony of the traffic light parties seemed to be scratched, FDP leader Christian Lindner has declared the short phase of indiscretions over. In the press conference, in which he explained the approval of the FDP bodies to enter into coalition negotiations with the SPD and the Greens, Lindner said in response to a journalist’s comment that he seemed “more withdrawn” than on Friday: “Oh, I have the same positive vibes like on Friday. But we’re just in a different phase now. ” Now it is specifically about the formation of a government, “and every statement when it comes to government participation has an incomparably different scope.”
In order to illustrate his statement at least abstractly, Lindner reported on individual statements “which we make in German domestic politics in live broadcasts” and which “lead to reactions from foreign governments”. A party that aims to participate in government must express itself publicly “responsible”.
Lindner’s appearance matched his message. He spoke slowly and with concentration, as if while he was talking he had to check whether he really wanted to say it that way. From the joint meeting of the FDP executive board and parliamentary group, the party leader reported that it had lasted two and a half hours and that the approval “in this very large body” was then unanimous.
“It was not on purpose”
Whether the reference to the “very intense debate” was a code for conflicts remained open, because Lindner refused to reveal details about the pronunciation. He said, however, that the participants had “also evaluated the public debates and statements of the last few days and hours”.
These debates dealt with the question of who would be the better finance minister, Lindner himself or the Greens boss Robert Habeck, and also with a reform of the inheritance tax and the layout and competencies of a possible climate ministry. Lindner himself started the debate about the climate ministry: “There is the Federal Chancellery, there is the finance ministry, there is a new climate ministry. And I am of the opinion that each of the partners must have an opportunity to have a creative impact,” he said on Sunday evening on ARD. It was not known that the SPD, Greens and FDP had agreed to set up a climate ministry.
When asked whether that was an oversight or whether he wanted to express a division of labor with his statement, Lindner said without further explanation: “That was an oversight.” He later added that he had spoken in connection with a debate that had been held over the weekend – kicked off by his co-boss Wolfgang Kubicki. Now that all parties have decided to enter into coalition talks, “we are now entering into another discussion and the well-dosed rules that we previously followed apply again.”
Mr. Kellner, Mr. Walter-Borjans and Mrs. Baerbock
About Lindner’s remarks on the climate ministry, SPD boss Norbert Walter-Borjans had said in the morning in the “early start” at ntv that now there was no talk about “which ministry will be tailored how”. At the same time he brought up an increase in inheritance tax – both an affront to the FDP. Also in the “early start”, the Greens federal manager Michael Kellner reacted in the spirit of the citrus coalition of the FDP and the Greens: “It was very clear that we have agreed that tax on assets is excluded,” said Kellner. It is “a shame” that no “fair” tax reform was agreed in the explorations. But: “I am not denying a result 48 hours later.”
Greens boss Annalena Baerbock, in turn, had that morning on Deutschlandfunk saidIt was agreed that “we will now use the leeway that we have with the suspended debt brake that we currently have to cope with investments”. In contrast, Walter-Borjans at ntv ruled out using the last Corona exception rule of the debt brake in the coming year to finance future investments with loans. “It’s not about getting yourself a cushion now, so to speak, that will last for years, but has nothing to do with Corona.”
Lindner did not want to comment on this debate either. “Mr Kellner commented on Mr Walter-Borjans and Mr Walter-Borjans commented on Ms. Baerbock and I don’t have to add anything else.” For the FDP, Lindner declared the dispute over the Federal Ministry of Finance to be “ticked off”.
FDP also wants to represent voters from the CDU and CSU
There was also no answer to the question of whether the FDP was striving for an equal representation of the federal government, as SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz had promised. “As the negotiator of the FDP, I do not want to speculate about questions about the composition of the cabinet.”
Lindner emphasized that the result of the federal election – and probably also that of the explorations – meant “no shift to the left in Germany”. For the CDU and CSU, he brought a packaged declaration of war: “We expressly want to keep an eye on the concerns of the voters of the Union parties.” Then a traffic light coalition would also enjoy the broad respect of the population, and ambitious reform projects could also be implemented.
Lindner rejected a comparison with the failed Jamaica negotiations four years ago. This sentence seemed important to him, because he started it again after being disturbed the first time by a loud noise in the background: “What is now available as an exploratory paper from the FDP, SPD and Greens contains a lot more Liberal politics after just a few days, than what had to be decided after four weeks at the 2017 Jamaica talks. “
In the case of the SPD, the executive board had already approved the exploratory paper on Friday; in the case of the Greens, the small party congress, which met in public, was approved by a large majority on Sunday. The next timetable will now be discussed by the general secretaries, “it will continue in the course of this week,” said Lindner about the start of the coalition negotiations. Lindner did not give the journalists any hope of transparency in these negotiations. You should not expect that “it can be seen in real time at which point there is intensive discussion”.