The FDP is facing a shambles. At the federal level, the party leadership is openly planning to end the traffic light coalition – and now things are also going haywire in the Hamburg regional association.
Hamburg/Berlin – The FDP is probably in the greatest crisis in its almost 76-year party history. After the disastrous Brandenburg election, the end of the unpopular traffic light coalition with the SPD and the Greens is apparently only a matter of time. Even party bigwigs have issued public ultimatums. It could all be over by Christmas.
But as always, in political Berlin, after the election comes the election. And so observers are already looking to Hamburg – a new parliament will be elected there in March. Party leader Christian Lindner is still confident of victory: if things go well, the FDP will “also manage to take on government responsibility in Hamburg,” he said at the press conference on Monday. Lindner, however, does not believe that things could go badly there: “Hamburg will be great, really.” But the FDP in the Hanseatic city is doing everything it can to dismantle itself.
FDP in its biggest crisis: End of traffic light coalition looms and now trouble in the Hamburg regional association
In Hamburg, prominent FDP members have once again left the party and joined the CDU. The nationally well-known security experts Wiebke Köhler and Claus Krumrei made no secret of their dissatisfaction with the FDP’s current policies, particularly in the area of security and defense. Köhler criticized the federal government in several Hamburg media outlets for its “irresponsible” attitude in these areas, while Krumrei emphasized that the FDP had lost its conservative-liberal roots. “The FDP has left us,” said Krumrei. These changes significantly weaken the FDP in Hamburg – and give new impetus to the Hamburg CDU, which has renewed its personnel for the upcoming state elections.
Another significant move is that of Anna von Treuenfels-Frowein to the CDU. The former top candidate of the FDP in Hamburg had already defected to the Christian Democrats in July and will be running for the party in second place on the list in the upcoming election. She also justified her move with dissatisfaction with the FDP’s federal policy, particularly with regard to the cannabis regulation and the citizen’s allowance.
Her move to the CDU was already seen as a major coup for the Hamburg Christian Democrats at the time. Now other prominent Hamburg personalities are following suit. CDU party and parliamentary group leader Dennis Thering is delighted: The CDU Hamburg is currently bundling all the forces of the middle class who are fed up with the red-green continuation of the status quo, says Thering. He is pleased that the Christian Democrats have been able to win over former FDP members to the CDU’s course.
Chaos in Hamburg is nothing new: FDP facing a breaking point – will the traffic light coalition collapse in the autumn?
The Hamburg FDP has been plagued by internal disputes for years. The last Hamburg FDP leader, Michael Kruse, was elected party chairman in 2021 as the successor to the then Bundestag member Katja Suding. A short time later, Kruse had to face massive criticism within the party in Hamburg. Members of the Young Liberals had accused him of authoritarian behavior – even former ministers and party veteran Gerhart Baum intervened in the Hamburg FDP crisis.
The current bloodletting in Hamburg comes at the worst possible time for party leader Christian Lindner. Immediately before the budget negotiations, the traffic light coalition is on the verge of collapse – a concrete date for the possible “traffic light exit” of the FDP has already been set.
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