01/01/2024 3:06 pm (current 01/01/2024 3:06 pm)
FDP members want to continue the traffic light coalition ©APA/dpa
A sigh of relief from the FDP leadership: in the member survey, the majority voted to remain in the coalition with the SPD and the Greens. 52.24 percent of voters supported the continuation of government work, 47.76 percent wanted to end the coalition, as the German Press Agency learned from party circles on Monday. However, only 26,058 of the FDP's approximately 72,100 members participated in the survey – just over one in three.
The members' vote has no practical consequences. Because the statutes say: “Party bodies are not bound, in their decision-making, to the results of the member survey.” However, the result is considered an important mood picture. If there had been a majority in favor of leaving the traffic lights, it would have fueled discussion within the party and put the party leadership under pressure.
This would likely mean new turbulence for the traffic light coalition. The relatively low interest of the FDP base in the question asked – survey participation of around 36 percent – and the result now also strengthen party president Christian Lindner.
The FDP's federal executive board began the survey on December 18, after a request from 598 members. Members were able to participate online for two weeks. The question was: “Should the FDP end the coalition with the SPD and the Greens as part of the federal government?” The answer can be “yes” or “no”.
According to the FDP statutes, an inquiry must be held if 500 members request it. This can be done through secret postal voting, decentralized in-person voting, online voting or a combination of the three methods. In this case, the party leadership decided on the online procedure. Only members listed with an email address in the member directory were able to participate.
The member vote initiative followed an open letter from 26 state and local FDP politicians. Following poor election results in Hesse and Bavaria, they demanded that the FDP reconsider its coalition partners. In Bavaria, the FDP failed to enter the state parliament last October. In Hesse, it only exceeded the 5% barrier.
The FDP had already suffered failures in five other state elections since joining the traffic light coalition. In the elections in Berlin, Lower Saxony and Saarland, it also failed to meet the 5% barrier. In Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia she remained in the state parliament, but was expelled from the government. Membership in the federal traffic light coalition was controversial in parts of the party from the start.
The 2024 election year also promises to be difficult for the FDP. Polls for September's three state elections in Saxony, Thuringia and Brandenburg place the liberals at between three and five percent. However, they are already several weeks old. In Saxony and Brandenburg, the FDP does not yet have a seat in the state parliament. There are still no national polls for the European elections in June – in 2019, the FDP obtained an overwhelming 5.4 percent.
FDP leader Lindner was extremely calm about the members' vote. It doesn't stress him out, he said. “Because it is an opportunity to make it clear that the FDP is helping to shape the direction of the government.”