FDP under pressure: Epiphany meeting as a turning point before the choice!

On January 5, 2025, the members of the FDP are under the pressure before the Bundestag election on February 23, 2025. In the current surveys, the party is only almost four percent. FDP-Vice Wolfgang Kubicki appeals to the unity, while the party is preparing for the traditional Epiphany meeting in Stuttgart. Agnes-Marie Strack-Zimmermann emphasizes the possibility of an alliance with the Union and sees a "huge intersection" between the FDP and CDU.

Party leader Christian Lindner asks CDU and CSU to open up a black and yellow alliance after the election. He and other top politicians emphasize the need to realign the FDP after the traffic light coalition failed, while Marco Buschmann quotes Hans-Dietrich Genscher to underpin this realignment. However, Jens Spahn from the CDU rejects the idea of a coalition election campaign and explains that everyone fights for themselves. Strack-Zimmermann also emphasizes the core competencies of the FDP, such as solid financial policy and innovation.

criticism within the party

Helmut Schäfer, a former Minister of State, criticizes the party leadership and accuses Lindner of having given the foreign policy responsibility to the Greens. Despite the negative survey results, the FDP records 2,500 new membership applications after the traffic light coalition failed, but also have to accept some resignations.

In the meantime, the current surveys show a negative picture for the FDP: it is three to four percent, while the Union ranks around 32 percent. In comparison, the SPD share is around 16 percent, the Greens are around 13 percent and the AfD around 19 percent. At the last coalition from 2009 to 2013 with the Union under Chancellor Angela Merkel, the FDP was unsuccessful and in 2013 failed at the 5 percent hurdle.

Shortly before the Epiphany meeting, top politicians of the FDP promoted a coalition with the Union. Christian Dürr, the FDP parliamentary group leader, acknowledges that the CDU has renewed itself after the Merkel era and represents market economy positions. Johannes Vogel, deputy FDP chairman, supports these coalition liability and sees great common ground in economic policy between the Union and the FDP, while at the same time emphasizing that a connection between the two parties is "no self-run".

for the FDP, the upcoming election campaign means both a challenge and an opportunity, especially if a black and yellow alliance is in sight after the election date.

Further information in this regard is provided by the article by fr.de the political landscape of Zeit.de .