The compromise needed to enter the government
In this context, German political commentators are cautious and to a large extent remain skeptical about the real possibilities of the FDP to enter the next coalition government. There are two necessary conditions for this to happen: CDU / CSU and Verdi do not arrive alone together with the majority in Parliament and the FDP must be able to compromise heavily. However, 42-year-old Lindner is increasingly convinced that there can be no real federal government in the future without the participation of liberals.
Leader Lindner’s hard line
In the pre-pandemic polls, the FDP has dropped by as much as 5%, a dangerous threshold. In the 2013 elections, the Liberals ran aground at 4.8% and remained out of the Bundestag for the first time in 64 years of their history. In 2017 it went much better, they obtained a loot of votes at 10.7% which even opened the entrance to the federal government: but it was Lindner who closed the door behind him refusing to form a “Jamaica” coalition with CDU / CSU and Die Grünen , deeming the positions of his party irreconcilable with those of potential government partners. “Better not rule than rule wrong,” was the uncompromising line taken by Lindner.
Junior parties in governments in Germany tend to pay a high price in terms of popularity, as is happening now at the SPD. However, it is foreseeable that the FDP, should it find itself again on the threshold of the federal government in September, this time will accept the compromise at any cost.
The post of the election manifesto: taxes will not go up
Intransigence is currently the unmistakable mark of the liberals, who never miss an opportunity to distance themselves and go against everyone, now CDU / CSU, now SPD, now Verdi. And this even more so with the election manifesto. In the Fdp congress that was held in mid-May, Lindner marked a milestone of his electoral campaign: “The taxes with us will not increase.”
Spd and Verdi realistically have already taken into account a tax increase, limited to the richest citizens, to partially pay the bill for the pandemic while even the right wing of the CDU / Csu represented by Friedrich Merz does not rule out a targeted increase in the tax burden .