Dispute on FDP party congress: Lindners problem Beer

It is the moment when things get emotional in the hall in Berlin-Kreuzberg. FDP leader Christian Lindner thanks the "dear Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann". The delegates stand up, followed by long-lasting applause. Strack-Zimmermann sits on the presidential square and takes a deep breath, gets up, waves briefly into the hall. This is followed by a film in which stages of her political life are shown. At the end a sentence lights up: "We say thank you".

The staging has a reason: Strack-Zimmermann, for many years recognized local politician in Dusseldorf and for one and a half years defense politician in the Bundestag, had recently declared that they no longer want to compete as FDP Parteivize. In a letter to Lindner and her NRW country chief Joachim Stamp, she justified her move as follows: She did not want a "fight candidate" against the top European candidate Nicola Beer, because "no matter what the outcome," one way or the other, it would be "to the detriment of Party".

It was an unusual letter. Because here waived a politician to help her party. Behind the letter hides a small drama that seems like a relapse into old FDP times. The sometimes rude phase from the era of party leaders Guido Westerwelle and Philipp Rösler Lindner actually wanted to overcome. In the case of Beer, he succeeded only conditionally. The former Secretary-General and future party members have put the Liberals in a difficult position with their drive to the top.

What happened? Since her election to the FDP top candidate for the European elections, it was clear that the native Hessian would be the post of secretary-general. Instead, she registered her claim to one of the three deputy posts. Why, in the party there are guesswork. Beer said in her introductory speech that she wanted to be "a bridge to and from Brussels", "with the weight of the Deputy Federal Chairmen".

Displeasure over Beers husband Jürgen Illing

Many Free Democrats did not convince her with that. It's probably more about status issues, it says in the party. With whom one speaks, whether simple delegates or board members, the name of Beers husband Jürgen Illing always falls. He had already worked in the Jamaican negotiations that his wife get a ministerial post. Illing has been listed in places as a "Deputy Secretary General FDP".

Dissatisfaction prevailed among party delegates about the fact that Lindner has apparently failed to talk Beer out of their candidacy. The 49-year-old would like to have become Deputy Group Chairman in the Bundestag after the election. Instead, Lindner suggested her for Brussels. Beer apparently sees the deputy post as a kind of compensation for their readiness for the European top candidate.

REUTERS

At the party congress in Berlin: Beer and Lindner in front of a Chinese logo ("Economic Policy" in German)

The only chance to put Beer in his place would have been that Strack-Zimmermann ran against them. Many believe that the Dusseldorf woman could win this competition. However, then the top European candidate would have been damaged in public - this was something Lindner wanted to avoid. Too much of the party are still the intrigue in the bones, which contributed in 2013 to the sacking of the Bundestag. Otto Graf Lambsdorff once said that the chairman of the FDP is qua office always disputed, said Lindner in his party speech, but one thing has changed in the new FDP: "The teamwork and solidarity in this Free Democratic Party."

That is only partly true after Beers obstinate behavior. Although the FDP managed to avoid a scandal on the open stage, many delegates were surprised by Beers behavior. On the one hand, the party discusses how it can get more women to work and take on leadership responsibility. On Thursday, the board agreed on "target agreements" instead of a women's quota. And then just a woman ensures that another loses her post.

Against this background, the re-election of Lindner to FDP leader on Friday seemed like a small damper: instead of last 91 percent, he received this time 86.64 percent of the delegates votes. Only in 2013 in his first election to the top, he had done poorly, at that time he came to about 79 percent.

A board member calls Beers behavior "puke"

With Strack-Zimmermann loses the NRW-FDP, from which also comes Lindner, now a place in the narrow party leadership. In the fall of 2013, in the deepest crisis of the Liberals after being expelled from the Bundestag, Lindner had proposed her as a deputy. The Rhinelander received at that time 71.65 percent of the vote, but Strack-Zimmermann took on the task, worked off honorary, was a loyal partisan. It was, said Lindner at the party congress "a very special example that the FDP is just not a bunch of people who see politics only as a profession." For Strack-Zimmermann, the "liberal basic conviction" is a "vocation".

HAYOUNG JEON / EPA-EFE / REX

Christian Lindner and Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann

Strack-Zimmermann is waiting for a phone call or a personal thank you from Beer to this day. Beer only thanked the WhatsApp group of the Presidium by text message. Literally she wrote: "Dear Marie-Agnes, I am grateful to you for making this European political accentuation possible for the benefit of the party."

Just a few Bureau members took Beer off this text message. "To puke" one called the behavior, and: Beers behavior is a step backwards to the then hypocrisy in the top management. Not even in her presentation speech for the deputy post before the delegates Beer thought it necessary to thank Strack-Zimmermann.

The receipt came promptly. Beer received just 59 percent on Friday - about as much as Strack-Zimmermann's choice to run for vice two years ago.

Now Strack-Zimmermann runs as an assessor for the FDP Federal Board on a free list, ie without protection. But in the face of applause in the hall, Lindner said she must "not worry much about her choice."