Christian Dürr: Who is the man who is supposed to save the FDP?

After more than 11 years, Christian Lindner gave up his office as FDP chairman. He thus draws consequences from the election debacle: The FDP had only brought 4.3 percent of the second votes in the Bundestag election on February 23 and has not been represented in the Bundestag since then. That was already the case from 2013 to 2017. At that time, Lindner had led the party back to the Bundestag and then in 2021 to the federal government with SPD and the Greens. The so-called traffic light coalition broke up early.

Now Lindner’s first name clever Christian Dürr is supposed to take the FDP lead. 82 percent of the delegates voted for the former Bundestag faction leader on Friday at the party congress in Berlin. The 48-year-old officially replaces party leader Lindner.

In his application speech, Dürr called on his party to “courage to make decisions” and “more courage to fundamentally reform”. He also promised to “criticize” the course of the new federal government from the extra -parliamentary opposition. From the party congress, the signal had to go out “that the Free Democrats can be expected,” he also said in a view to several state elections in the coming year.

A fresh start begins for the party. With attitude, as the FDP writes on its. According to the 48-year-old Dürr, the key to this is a policy for the “family of the middle”. But what exactly does that mean? What does Dürr and is he the right man for the job for?

On the morning of the party congress, Dürr already announced in the ZDF morning magazine that the FDP wanted to focus more on the economic situation of the citizens in the future: The new fundamental program will “very specific answers” to the following questions: “How can people who work hard, still have a perspective and do something?” In the past, the impression had occurred in some cases, the party is concerned with economic drivers and not about the Middle family, said Dürr.

The FDP as a workers’ party? That would be too high. Nevertheless, Dürr’s background suggests that he is serious about the citizens’ course. He grew up in the Lower Saxony community of Ganderkesee, attended the primary school and high school.

Dürr’s parents had a retail company, which according to his own statement brought him into the economic world. In 1998 he began studying economics at the Leibniz University in Hanover, not far from home, and completed it in 2007 as a graduate economist.

He remained loyal to his hometown, and Dürr still lives in Ganderkesee with his wife and two children, ten and eleven years old. The FDP politician apparently likes to show the connection to the region: the “” reports, for example, of a visit to Berlin, in which he wore cufflinks with the Lower Saxony-Ross.

Dürr is considered down -to -earth in party circles. In 1996 he joined the FDP and worked as a parliamentary group leader on local politics in the Lower Saxony state parliament, which he belonged from 2003 to 2017. When the FDP flew out of the Bundestag in 2013, Dürr Lindner Half Dürr Lindner in the reconstruction of the party. In 2017, the re-entry succeeded, Dürr became a member of the German Bundestag and in December 2021 chairman of the FDP parliamentary group.

At the beginning of the traffic light government, the exchange between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP was still professionally off, but then Dürr experienced the failure of the coalition up close: conflicts about the heating law, household and debt brake led to chaos-and finally to break. But Dürr got away without great image damage. In contrast to the polarizing FDP disputes, Marie-Egnes Strack-Zimmermann and Wolfgang Kubicki can hardly tackle and often takes up a broker role.

In a government or within your own party, one thing is one, but a much greater challenge is now waiting for Dürr: the FDP is no longer playing a role in federal politics, voters are rather looking at the work of the new Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the grand coalition with the SPD. Dürr must regain public attention for the liberals.

And what is the concrete plan for the future now? The middle of the middle of the reform is convinced. In one he explains how he wants to change and reposition the party. Reduce state subsidies to strengthen economic freedom. Drive the stock pension forward to secure people socially. Faster professional recognition to bring migrants to the labor market faster. Bureaucratic reduction to simplify administrative processes. And so forth.

Not only thematically, but also in terms of personnel, Dürr wants to broaden the FDP after the debacle in the Bundestag election. His proposal to fill the office of general secretary with AI entrepreneur Nicole Büttner shows that the party opens up to people “who come directly from the economy,” he said.

Next year Dürr’s conversion plans will be subjected to a first endurance test. The state elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate are pending. In both federal states, the FDP (still) rules. If she missed the move into one of the country parliaments, that would be a fatal signal for the future of the party – and for Christian Dürr.

With material from the dpa and AFP news agencies