2024-10-01 05:37:28
Friedrich Merz switches to attack mode against the liberals. Meanwhile, the private relationship with FDP leader Christian Lindner is probably broken.
The CDU chairman Friedrich Merz sharply attacked the FDP. In his weekly newsletter he claims that “the FDP is now really doing everything it can to finally be thrown out: it no longer adheres to anything that the traffic light parties jointly agreed to almost three years ago.” In an interview with the “Bild-Zeitung” he follows up – and also talks about his personal relationship with Finance Minister Lindner.
In his newsletter, the opposition leader makes several accusations against the FDP: it has blocked hearings on draft bills in ministries and is contradicting laws that it itself decided in the cabinet, such as the pension reform. Finally, she brings in a budget written by the FDP finance minister, which, according to Merz, “is once again suspected of being unconstitutional.”
“How long will the FDP be doing this?” the CDU leader worries about the junior partner in the traffic light coalition. Because Merz sees the FDP not only as a threat to the government – which he hopes will fail – but more. “Damage caused by traffic lights not only affects the entire country. Our democracy is also damaged,” he writes, “1.1 percent, 0.9 percent and 0.8 percent are the FDP election results.”
Merz also cited the poor results in an interview with “Bild” editor-in-chief Marion Horn. When asked about his formerly friendly relationship with Lindner, Merz said: “I understand him less and less. I don’t know what he’s up to.” He would have some regrets about the Liberal Party. “It’s organized suicide what they’re doing at the moment.”
Merz claims in his newsletter that even the Union is being affected by the crisis of the traffic light coalition. “Although we as a Union have readjusted our course on key policy issues over the last two years, especially in migration policy and economic policy, we are held jointly responsible for many of the problems we have in the country,” he writes. The Union can only counteract this by clearly distancing itself from the government, the 68-year-old concludes.
The FDP had moved closer to the Union on the issue of asylum policy in July. “Many of Mr. Merz’s proposals in the area of migration correspond to the ideas and demands of the FDP. But we want to go further and withdraw social benefits from Dublin refugees who are obliged to leave the country,” said the leader of the Liberal parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Christian Dürr. In order to solve the migration crisis, all democratic parties are needed, emphasized Dürr. “The FDP is ready to make non-partisan efforts to consistently enforce new realism in migration at the federal and state levels,” Lindner told “Bild” in July.
FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai rejected the criticism as “completely unbelievable”. “While the Union accuses us of taking responsibility in a difficult coalition, it itself has a completely unclear relationship with the Greens,” said Djir-Sarai. The criticism falls back on Merz himself.