FDP member survey on remaining in the traffic light ends

Parties - FDP member survey on remaining in the traffic light ends

A survey of FDP members on their continued participation in the traffic light coalition with the SPD and Greens ends this Monday afternoon. Committees and members will then be informed of the outcome. It was initially unclear how long the count would take and when the results of the survey would be published. The party or the parliamentary group do not have to follow the vote. The FDP constitution states: "The organs of the party are not bound by the result of the member survey in their decision-making." The result is nevertheless eagerly awaited.

The member survey was launched in mid-December and followed an open letter from 26 state and local FDP politicians who, following the poor election results in Hesse and Bavaria, had called for the FDP to reconsider its coalition partners. In Bavaria, the FDP had missed out on entering the state parliament in October. In Hesse, it just made it over the five percent hurdle.

In the 2021 federal election, the Liberals under party leader Christian Lindner still achieved 11.5 percent. The FDP has not been doing well in nationwide polls for some time now. In recent surveys, it has achieved around 5 percent - so it is unclear whether it would still be in the Bundestag at all if elections were held now.

Kubicki does not want an exit from the traffic light system

In November, FDP deputy leader Wolfgang Kubicki advised against voting for an exit from the federal government. At the time, he told the Münchner Merkur newspaper that he believed in the common sense of the overwhelming majority of his party colleagues "not to vote for an escape from responsibility". He warned of a very difficult election campaign for the FDP in the event of an exit and said: "We will not win an election campaign with the slogan: We have failed."

One of the initiators of the FDP member survey, Matthias Nölke, accused the party leadership of a lack of transparency a few days ago. "The FDP leadership is largely silent towards us initiators," he told the "Tagesspiegel" newspaper. The federal managing director had left his written questions about the member survey largely unanswered. For example, it was not known when and how the count would take place and how the results would be announced. The party headquarters acted with "little transparency and little sovereignty", said the Kassel FDP district chairman.