As the neoliberal FDP tried to focus on the positives on Friday, some members voiced dissatisfaction with former Finance Minister Christian Lindner’s handling of the budget deadlock.
Lawyer and climate activist Mathis Bönte said on X that he had asked party colleagues why Lindner alleges that Chancellor Scholz effectively asked him to break his oath of office by declaring a state of emergency to allow for extra government borrowing in 2025.
“The war in Ukraine has already destabilized our society,” Bönte wrote.
“What happens if Russia deposes the Ukrainian government? For me it’s clear, that this poses an exceptional emergency situation that would justify exceeding the debt brake,” according to the relevant part of German law, he argued.
Others in the FDP have argued that securing necessary funding for Ukraine next year would have been possible without breaching the borrowing rules.
Digitization expert and author Ann Cathrin Riedel said late on Thursday that she had left the party.
“Today I notice once more, that my fundamental values as a democrat and a liberal do not align with the FDP,” she wrote.
And Lars Alt, a lawyer from Lower Saxony and former FDP member of the northern state’s parliament, accused Lindner of acting “out of strategic calculation and out of fear of the 5% hurdle” that the party would have to clear to guarantee parliamentary representation in the next election.
He said this was “not just poor style, but also unworthy of the role of a governing party in Germany.”
“Facing this global and economic situation, one day after the US elections, you can’t throw the center of Europe into a political crisis,” Alt said on Instagram.
“The content-based suggestions of the FDP regarding the economic situation were correct,” Alt argued. “But as the smallest coalition partner, you must also be prepared to compromise for the good of the political stability of the country.”
