The fact that the FDP is sending Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann forward in the European election campaign is a strong sign. The defense politician is the best and most prominent speaker in her party and could also achieve what is most urgently needed.
When Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann stepped onto the stage of the Stuttgart Opera on January 6th, she was immediately greeted with applause. “I haven’t said anything yet,” she commented dryly and immediately got the first laugh. When she finished her speech at the Epiphany meeting, she received a standing ovation. Also for her saying: “We need less von der Leyen and more of freedom!” Such scenes are likely to be repeated in Berlin this Sunday. Then the FDP officially names the 65-year-old from Düsseldorf as the top candidate for the European elections on June 9th.
With “MASZ”, as it is often called in Berlin, the FDP commissions its most prominent politician to represent the Liberal cause first in the election campaign and then in Brussels and Strasbourg. In any case, she is more prominent than some ministers from her own ranks. That has to do with your topic, security and defense policy. Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, she has made a name for herself as a staunch supporter of arms deliveries – she recently called on ntv again for the delivery of the Taurus cruise missile.
Together with Anton Hofreiter from the Greens, Michael Roth from the SPD and CDU foreign politician Roderich Kiesewetter, she tirelessly advocates for even more decisive help. She also doesn’t spare the Chancellor from direct criticism. “Wow, the old woman is annoying,” his advisor Jens Plötner is said to have said at the Bundeswehr conference in November. Strack-Zimmermann might have liked that. Not only because the Rhinelander herself maintains a relaxed tone, but because occasional nerves are obviously part of the job description for the chairwoman of the Bundestag’s Defense Committee.
Strong sign
But if there is something that the EU and before that the campaign for the European elections can use, it is politicians who are not afraid of being annoying. Those who see the European Parliament as more than just a stepping stone to Berlin. Or those who actually have their careers behind them and are deported to Brussels, even praised away. That was common practice for decades and so Strack-Zimmermann also asks herself whether her party leader Christian Lindner might be happy to send her controversial party friend away from Berlin.
Whether that is the case would only be exciting for political gourmets in Berlin anyway. Because Strack-Zimmermann is exactly the right person for the election campaign. It is a strong signal from the FDP that they are not sending someone from the second row into the race, but rather a woman who many people already know, who will continue to sit reliably on talk shows and who can also reach people. This is important in every election, but especially in this one.
On the one hand, turnout in European elections is often weak because many people still do not understand how many decisions are made in Brussels. On the other hand, this is precisely why the AfD is threatened with a march towards 20 or 30 percent. Alice Weidel was just fantasizing about a “Dexit”, Germany’s exit from the EU. People like Strack-Zimmermann can be trusted to explain why this union has its flaws, but they would actually have to be invented if they didn’t exist. This election is about this air sovereignty at the regulars’ tables.
If voter turnout is low, extreme parties benefit anyway. The feeling: “It’s not about federal politics” could lead some dissatisfied people to vote for the right-wing populists. If only unknown or pale candidates appear on the posters and ultimately on the ballot paper, it promotes this impression.
So it’s refreshing that the FDP doesn’t do the same as the SPD and the Greens, for example. For the Social Democrats, Katarina Barley is a competent and intelligent politician and lawyer – but her world is more of the lecture hall than the marketplace. This is of course just as important in politics, but an election campaign needs a driving force and that is not their strength. The Greens also have a young but experienced candidate in Terry Reintke – but hardly anyone knows her in this country. But prominence is a factor in an election in which more is at stake than usual.
Not Everybody’s Darling
Strack-Zimmermann’s big mouth is an advantage. But is there anything behind it? Your topic, defense and security policy, is particularly important in Europe. Germany supplies 50 percent of the military equipment sent to Ukraine from Europe. Strack-Zimmermann will work to ensure that others also make their contribution. Critics accuse her of being too close to the arms industry. After all, she is a member of the lobby association “Förderkreis Deutsches Heer”. But in times when it’s also about how quickly, how much ammunition and how many tanks can be produced, this doesn’t have to be a disadvantage.
The former first mayor of Düsseldorf – and therefore deputy to the mayor – also knows local politics. And as a mother of three adult children, probably also life from close combat. She has been a member of the Bundestag since 2017 and is therefore familiar with Berlin’s very own political cosmos. Unlike some other European politicians who still want to get there.
Of course Strack-Zimmermann is not everyone’s darling. Because she not only offended the Chancellor’s advisors, but also Friedrich Merz a year ago. During a carnival broadcast, she mercilessly grilled the CDU leader. This might have been harmless for Rhenish carnival veterans. In the rest of the country – and with Lindner’s friend Merz – this was less well received. “Everybody’s darling is everybody’s idiot,” she just told him “Tagesspiegel”. “You simply can’t please everyone in politics. Once you understand that, you can act freely.” The FDP can really use a strong premium right now – and so can Europe’s democracy.