A German politician’s stance on potential coalitions in the post-election landscape. Christian Lindner, the leading candidate of the Free Democratic Party (FDP), has ruled out the possibility of re-entering a coalition with Olaf Scholz, the current German Chancellor, following the Bundestag elections. Lindner told the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger and Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland that he cannot envision a renewed partnership with Scholz, stating that the Chancellor’s ultimatum to bypass the debt brake to provide three billion euros to Ukraine had “imploded.”
Lindner’s remarks came after the Bundestag passed a bill, with the support of the Union and FDP, to allocate the three billion euros without exception from the debt brake. The Social Democratic Party (SPD) abstained from voting, but did not actively oppose the measure, which Lindner sees as a sign that the narrative of the “traffic light coalition” (Ampel-Aus) needs to be rewritten.
Moreover, Lindner has also dismissed the possibility of a coalition with the Green Party, citing his past experiences in the government and the recent migration debate. He believes that the economic stagnation, paternalism towards adults and the unwillingness to control and steer migration to Germany, all of which are issues that the Alternative for Germany (AfD) exploits, are linked to Green Party politics. Lindner advocates for a black-yellow coalition, or in the worst-case scenario, a “Germany coalition” rather than a black-green or Jamaica coalition, which he believes would perpetuate Green Party policies.