Christian Lindner and the black and green bustle specter

In the end, Christian Lindner comes up with talking about what is obvious: for the FDP on February 23, it will be all about everything. “We are currently in the polls on the brink, we know,” the FDP chairman calls from the party congress stage in Potsdam. In all surveys, the liberals rank at four percent and are therefore in the political death zone. Your re -entry into the Bundestag is at risk, just two weeks before the election. Lindner’s days as party leader could then also be counted. So what does it follow?

The solution of Lindner, who appears confidently on Sunday afternoon, is almost defiant: Whoever chooses the FDP, prevents black and green-and thus also a government that belongs to Robert Habeck.

“Robert Habeck is the largest growth brake in our country,” rumbled Lindner with applause from the FDP delegate. Only frustration is growing at the Green Economic Minister, not the economy. According to Lindner, the fact that Union Chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz (CDU) had praised him for his asylum -political proposals: According to Lindner, one thing is particularly evident: that Merz is also ready for the chancellorship of “a change of policy in Germany”. Lindner: “We don’t.”

The strategy of the FDP chairman is obvious-and risky. Lindner tries to frame the liberals as the political force with which there is actually a U-turn in economic and migration policy. He relies on maximum delimitation to political competitors, especially the Greens. And in case of doubt, future power options also work out of your hand.

“As soon as the FDP belongs to the German Bundestag, a black and green coalition is excluded mathematically,” says Lindner. “That alone is a reason to choose the FDP!” He categorically excludes an alliance between the FDP and the Greens. That also means, says the FDP boss: no Jamaica, a government of the Union, Greens and Liberals. This means that Friedrich Merz alone no longer decides which coalition is being formed, says Lindner, but the citizens.

The FDP boss obviously wants his party to be understood as the Zünglein on the scales. Because the chairman apparently has no doubt that the Union should become the strongest strength in the Bundestag election. According to him, the crucial question is not who would become Chancellor, he says in Potsdam. The crucial questions are growth or stagnation, freedom or state, “Lindner or Habeck in the cabinet”. The FDP boss also claims to be part of the next federal government.

But what could this government look like? The liberals are based on a coalition with the Union, but are currently far from a sufficiently large number of mandates in order to be an option as a smaller partner of a two -all -round alliance.

According to Lindner’s words, a Jamaica coalition is also excluded, as well as working with AfD, BSW or left. If in doubt, there would be a “Germany coalition” with the Union and SPD. After the break in the traffic light government, the Social Democrats should think twice about whether they want to rule again with the FDP-and especially with Lindner.

The Union should hardly like that the liberals for the re -entry into parliament also openly poached in the voter milieu of their desired partner. Most recently, their candidate for Chancellor Merz called potential FDP voters for the cross at the Union, warned CSU boss Markus Söder of “loan voices” for the liberals.

Lindner now countered: “Markus Söder has exactly two voices. His own. He doesn’t have to borrow them, he can keep it.” The deputy FDP chairman Wolfgang Kubicki even aimed directly at the Union’s sympathizers: “The urgently needed turn in economic policy and in migration policy will only exist with the free democrats,” he said. “That’s why I call up all the Union voters: Select the FDP on the election Sunday.” Kubicki: “We are the bulwark against black-green.”

The liberals also rely on their core issues with their backs to the wall. “Make Liberty Great Again” (German: “makes freedom big”), FDP general secretary Marco Buschmann, obviously based on the campaign slogan of US President Donald Trump (“Make America Great Again”). Lindner also hits this notch: “It is a time when it must apply: Economy First.” That is why the “economic turn” has priority for the FDP.

In their election call unanimously decided on Sunday, the liberal nine “test stones” formulate as conditions for a possible future government participation. The aim is to turn in economic policy and a focus on “renewal, competitiveness and freedom”. Party leader Lindner also called for a dismantling of bureaucracy, relief for the economy and an energy policy open to technology.

If you want to keep the liberal potential in parliament, Lindner said “has to come to the flag now”. And, he wants to know that, choose the FDP.