D-Day document: Can you still believe the FDP?

On Thursday, an internal strategy paper from the FDP emerged in which the Liberals precisely mapped out the coalition break. This includes concrete process scenarios and wording requirements to prepare for the traffic lights to be turned off. The plan presented in the document includes four time periods, represented in the “sequence pyramid”. The final phase is described as. The title of the document is: “D-Day scenarios and measures”.

The political consequences that the publication of the strategy paper will have have not yet been decided. After the “Zeit” and the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reported for the first time about a precise plan to break the coalition almost two weeks ago, the term “D-Day” was used internally to describe the time of the coalition break. During World War II, D-Day was the day the Allies landed in Normandy to open a second front against Nazi Germany.

“That’s not true. This term (‘D-Day’) was not used. That is wrong and what the FDP is accused of in the media is an impudence,” Djir-Sarai claimed in the ntv program ” Frühstart ” on 18. November. The chairwoman of the Young Liberals, Franziska Brandmann, said in a “Spiegel” panel: “I know all the people who are said to have been present at the talks. And I have spoken to these people and (…) all of them have spoken to me made it clear that they knew nothing about the word and did not say it.” Wolfgang Kubicki, deputy party leader and Bundestag Vice President, even declared the entire research a “fairy tale.” He said on The Pioneer podcast: “I think that’s a blatant lie. I can definitely rule out that it’s true.”

Djir-Sarai and other party colleagues may have been telling untruths.

The document seems to be an indication of this. According to the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”, the FDP General Secretary was also in the room when the FDP leadership discussed their exit plans and escalated their rhetoric – until the term “D-Day” began circulating days later. If the document that has now been published was discussed in outline, the question arises: Does Djir-Sarai have a gap in his memory – or is he lying?

In any case, the FDP never denied that there were concrete “talks” about breaking the coalition.

It is not yet completely clear who the paper was addressed to. According to information from “Zeit”, the document was created on October 24th. The current version, which the FDP has now published itself, is from November 5th. Federal Managing Director Carsten Reymann was in charge, as the liberals confirmed to “Zeit”.

However, the statement downplays the importance of the paper. It was “not the subject of political advice from elected officials and government members.” Djir-Sarai continues to reject the accusation that he knew the paper and the term “D-Day”: “The paper was created at the employee level. Nobody from the leadership of the FDP knew the paper,” he told the newspaper. World”.