FDP General Secretary Djir-Sarai and federal managing director resign

In a short statement this Friday, Bijan Djir-Sarai announced his resignation as FDP General Secretary. He is drawing the conclusion from the statement that the party had planned specifically and for a long time to leave the traffic light coalition. In Berlin, however, he said he had “no knowledge” of the paper and its contents. “I take political responsibility to prevent damage to my credibility and that of the FDP.”

Shortly afterwards, Federal Managing Director Carsten Reymann also announced his resignation. The FDP announced that this would enable the party to reorganize its personnel before the federal election.

CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann said this star “The resignation of Bijan Djir-Sarai is a bitter loss for the FDP.” Linnemann went on to say that he has always found him to be a reliable conversation partner and colleague and that he really values ​​him as a person.

Djir-Sarai had come under pressure because of plans that had now become known for a targeted exit from the coalition. The youth organization Young Liberals therefore called on him to resign from the office of Secretary General on Friday. JuLi chairwoman Franziska Brandmann wrote on the short message service The paper, which became public the day before, was “unworthy of a liberal party.” Not only the public must get the impression that they have been deceived for weeks – but also their own party, said Brandmann.

The FDP published the internal strategy paper on Thursday after it was leaked to several media outlets. Scenarios for exiting the coalition are played out – and martial words such as “D-Day” and “field battle” are used. Djir-Sarai recently claimed in a ntv interview that he knew nothing about this and described this in his resignation as false information that had been given “unknowingly”.

Djir-Sarai has been Secretary General of the FDP since April 2022. He was born in Tehran in 1976 and came to Germany at a young age, where he graduated from high school and studied business administration. In 2009 he was elected to the Bundestag for the first time. He has been a member of parliament again since 2017. He was foreign policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group from 2017 to 2021 and is still a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. Djir-Sarai represents the North Rhine-Westphalian constituency of Neuss I in the Bundestag. He is also a member of the state executive board of the NRW-FDP.

Notes: This article has been updated. Like ntv, stern is part of RTL Deutschland.