Bijan Djir-Sarai is retiring, according to information from South German newspaper returned as FDP general secretary. Previously he had Mirror reported. The party announced a statement from Djir-Sarai in the Hans-Dietrich-Genscher-Haus at 11:30 a.m.
On Thursday evening, the FDP published the so-called “D-Day” paper after research by, among others South German newspaper self-published on their homepage. The document makes it clear that the FDP has planned the early end of the traffic light coalition in detail.
Some of the wording in the eight-page document caused outrage among political competitors. “D-Day” commonly refers to the day on which the US military entered World War II in 1944 to liberate Europe from the Nazis. In the FDP, however, the word was apparently used to refer to the exit from the federal government. The paper also talks about an “open field battle”. “Such irresponsible actions destroy citizens’ trust in democratic institutions,” said SPD General Secretary Matthias Miersch.
:FDP planned “open field battle”
An internal document from party headquarters about “D-Day” shows how the Liberals prepared the end of the traffic light coalition in October.
Djir-Sarai also came under pressure because, after SZ and Time who first reported on the paper claimed that the term “D-Day” had not been used: “That is wrong,” Djir-Sarai told the broadcaster ntv on November 18th.
On Thursday, the 48-year-old initially tried to downplay the importance of the paper: “We have never made a secret of the fact that without an economic turnaround, an end to the traffic lights could be a possible outcome of what we call the autumn of decisions.” He spoke of a scandalization of the preparation for scenarios. “If the entire German media landscape was already speculating about the end of the traffic lights at this point, then it is only professional to prepare for this option.”
Djir-Sarai was first elected to the German Bundestag in 2009, where he has been a member again since 2017. He is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and was foreign policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group from 2017 to 2022. He became general secretary of the party in 2022.
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