Germany: Secret traffic light plans are catching up with the FDP

“D-Day” paper

Now Lindner’s FDP’s secret promotion plans are catching up with him

The general secretary and the managing director resign to take pressure off party leader Christian Lindner. The FDP fluctuates between admitting guilt and defiance.

Published: November 29, 2024, 3:02 p.m

Finally wants to get back on the offensive: FDP leader Christian Lindner.

Photo: Tobias Schwarz (AFP)

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Shortly:

After calls for his resignation, Bijan Djir-Sarai resigned as general secretary of the FDP.
Research uncovered the party’s secret plans to end the coalition.
The leader of the Young Liberals criticized the FDP for deceiving the public.

The performance lasted 43 seconds, with which Bijan Djir-Sarai announced his resignation on Friday afternoon. The Secretary General of the FDP said that he “unknowingly provided incorrect information about an internal document.” He did not know the so-called secret paper in which his party had prepared the break from the government coalition – nor its orientation. Politically, however, he takes responsibility for the “incident” and is resigning to prevent damage to his party’s credibility.

Then Djir-Sarai was gone. Half an hour later, Carsten Reymann, the managing director of the FDP, also resigned. He couldn’t say he wasn’t familiar with the eight-page “D-Day” presentation; after all, he had demonstrably created, written and updated the document.

“Where is the message?” Christian Lindner had asked

Two weeks late, the research by “Zeit” and “Süddeutscher Zeitung” (SZ) has finally caught up with the FDP. The two newspapers had proven, based on conversations with conventional and internal documents, that the party had probably been in power since the end of September had meticulously planned his exit from government. In the end, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) anticipated the plans by saying goodbye to FDP leader and Finance Minister Christian Lindner on November 6th.

When the secret script became known two weeks ago, Lindner dismissed it with the counter question: “Where is the message?” It has long been known that his party is no longer prepared to remain in government without a radical economic turnaround. And of course there was a lot of focus on scenarios about what would happen if the Social Democrats and the Greens rejected a policy change.

Denied once too much: FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai.

Photo: John MacDougall (AFP)

Neither Lindner nor anyone else from the FDP leadership responded to questions about the specific planning. Secretary General Djir-Sarai, however, categorically denied that the term D-Day had been used to describe the exit date. This statement fell on his feet on Thursday evening when the relevant internal paper, It was even titled “D-Day” and became public – again under pressure from “Zeit” and SZ the document had received.

“The paper is unworthy of a liberal party”

Many media outlets are now outraged that Djir-Sarai had lied. In any case, all the meetings where the script for ascension was discussed were attended. Franziska Brandmann, leader of the Young Liberals, called for the Secretary General to resign on Friday morning. “The paper that became public yesterday is unworthy of a liberal party.” Not only the public must get the impression that they have been deceived for weeks, but also your own party. This also applies to me – I too was deceived.”

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Djir-Sarai took responsibility for the contradictory communications when he resigned two hours later. He also threw himself in front of his boss Lindner, who the FDP cannot do without in the election campaign.

Shortly before, Lindner himself had once again reiterated his party’s previous line of defense: It probably didn’t surprise anyone that the FDP had thought about leaving this disastrous government. “I had announced an autumn of decisions. With an open outcome.” If you read the internal script for promotion, the outcome has been anything but open since the beginning of October at the latest.

Others from the FDP have been on the offensive for a long time and believe that it doesn’t matter at all how the traffic light coalition came to an end: “I plead guilty,” wrote deputy leader Wolfgang Kubicki on X. “I wanted the end of this coalition, its .” Spice has massively damaged our economy and our reputation. I was tired of it, as were 80 percent of the population. I’m glad it’s over and we can finally start something new. If you are also looking for someone to blame, Reds, Greens or parts of the media, take me. Nobody will be able to take away my pride in my party.”

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