2024-01-01 22:15:20
By Alexander Ratz and Thomas Escritt
BERLIN (Reuters) – By a slim majority, members of Germany’s liberal Free Democrats (FDP) opted after a non-binding vote to remain in German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s turbulent three-party government coalition.
Members of the pro-business party did not appear happy about being part of a coalition with Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens, sparking rumors that the coalition might not last for just under two years left in the year. mandate.
Bijan Djir-Sarai, general secretary of the FDP, said on Monday that the result, with 52% voting to remain, clearly shows that the party wants to remain in the coalition. The leader of the party, Christian Lindner, is the Minister of Finance.
“The overwhelming majority of voting members want the FDP to continue assuming this responsibility,” he told reporters. “The political challenges are enormous, in economic policy, budgetary policy, but also with regard to immigration… And we want the FDP to continue contributing.”
Only 26,000 of the party’s 76,000 members voted in the election, which was launched by regional leaders after the party was expelled from the regional parliaments of Bavaria and Hessen, after falling below the minimum threshold of 5% of votes in elections in these places.
With the war in Ukraine, the loss of Russian gas and the need for an accelerated energy transition imposing unprecedented costs on Europe’s industrial powerhouse in times of low or negative growth, the FDP is finding it difficult to impose its orthodox fiscal prescriptions. .
(Reporting by Alex Ratz)
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