The current chair of the FDP, Christian Dürr, has withdrawn his planned re-candidacy for the party chairmanship at the general meeting at the end of May. Instead, he announced his support for Wolfgang Kubicki’s bid for the leadership role. Speaking to the “Bild” on Easter Sunday, Dürr stated that he has no doubt about the FDP’s future success, stressing that a consensus is necessary. He affirmed, “I will do my part by supporting Wolfgang Kubicki and will not run”. Dürr emphasized his desire for the country to move forward, arguing that this requires a strong FDP with clear stances on market economies and freedom. “Wolfgang has what it takes to achieve that”.
In contrast, FDP Vice Chair Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann criticized Kubicki’s announcement of his candidacy for the liberal party chairmanship. While telling the “Tagesspiegel” that competition could never harm a party like the FDP, which values openness and the performance principle, she argued that the timing was inappropriate. “But now is not the time for personal vanity or late self-assurance, just because an opportunity opens up”. The European Parliament member criticized the 74-year-old’s move, which he had announced on Saturday evening. She asserted that the FDP must be led toward the future by a new generation, rather than solely by established figures. She suggested that both Kubicki and herself should focus their public visibility on supporting the party’s revitalization, “but together with the new generation, and not by standing in their way at the top”.
Strack-Zimmermann, who had previously positioned herself as part of a potential co-leadership, has since offered her backing to the FDP state chair in North Rhine-Westphalia, Henning Höne. According to Strack-Zimmermann, Höne represents a distinct profile-both economically market-oriented and socially conservative-and possesses the potential to achieve what has been neglected in recent months, a capacity that the other candidates do not convincingly embody: “the unification and defense of organized liberalism in its entirety”.