Christian Lindner, Minister of Finance and Leader of the Liberal Party (FDP). LUKAS BARTH/REUTERS
DECRYPTION – The behavior of the FDP, the German centrist party, disorients its partners in Europe.
Despite political influence in Brussels, inversely proportional to its political weight in Germany, the behavior of the FDP, the party of Finance Minister Christian Lindner, disorients its European partners. In Berlin on Wednesday, in front of the Brandenburg Gate, the small liberal formation was symbolized by an SUV trampling a European flag, driven into the ground by Greenpeace activists: a reference to the last-minute veto affixed by the FDP to the community compromise aimed at ban heat engines in 2035.
“By sticking so narrowly to synthetic fuels, the FDP is undermining climate protection and Germany’s role in the EU”, indignant Benjamin Stephan, mobility expert of the environmental NGO. On the eve of the European Council, Transport Minister Volker Wissing, the man leading the battle in Brussels on behalf of the FDP, still opposed a Commission proposal opening up the prolonged use of “e-fuel” …
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