The FDP was not there and still present - as a courted fourth.

Because the Liberals wisely decided not to nominate a candidate for Chancellor, party leader Christian Lindner was not invited to the first TV round of candidates for Merkel's successor.

So the Triell lacked the voice of the party, which more and more eyes are turning to, since a three-party coalition is considered the most likely election result.

The SPD hopeful Olaf Scholz makes the Liberal traffic light advances, even if he does not close the door to a red-green-red alliance out of consideration for his left wing. The Green leadership also shows distance to the Left Party, whose foreign policy it does not consider capable of governing. Union candidate Armin Laschet wants the FDP by his side anyway.

Many voters would therefore like to know more about the “red and green lines” of the market party FDP, which is looking at the Ministry of Finance.

It is obvious that, in terms of financial policy, she would quickly agree with the CDU and CSU on a path that would provide the necessary relief and more freedom for companies, combined with a somewhat extended return to the debt brake.

In a Jamaica alliance, however, Greens would also have to gain their rights who want to ease the brakes on investment programs.

Even from the FDP's point of view, a compromise could be to outsource the huge “legacy” of climate policy to a kind of special fund, like the GDR debt once did.

Then the long-running subsidies for green electricity put pressure on neither the federal budget nor electricity customers, at least if interest rates remain close to zero.

That is not in the spirit of the debt brake, it would be a tightrope walk for the FDP. Far more difficult compromises demanded a traffic light with the SPD and the Greens. They promise the burden of higher incomes and assets, expansion of the welfare state, and higher minimum wages. The FDP would bind itself to two parties with a tendency to narrow the scope for private competition and the market. This is the opposite of what the FDP is promoting - and what the country needs. How much would she get into it? Liberals should make it very clear where their non-negotiable core lies.