FDP Hamburg: A day between Suding's tears and Kruse's comeback

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Michael Kruse is the new state chairman of the Hamburg FDP.

At a largely online party congress on Sunday, 207 members voted for the former co-group chairman in the citizenry.

The 37-year-old succeeds the Bundestag member and deputy federal chairman Katja Suding, who stopped running after seven years as state chairman and wants to withdraw from active politics after the federal election in September.

Michael Kruse is the newly elected party chairman of the FDP Hamburg

Source: dpa

In the fight vote, Kruse prevailed with an absolute majority against the former member of parliament Daniel Oetzel, for whom 127 members voted.

There were also three no votes and two abstentions in the ballot.

The vote still has to be confirmed by a postal vote.

The result should be available on May 9th.

For Kruse, this election means a political comeback, he was one of the two parliamentary group leaders of the FDP in the Hamburg parliament until a year ago and was toying with the possibility of participating in government to become the economic senator of the Hanseatic city.

But nothing came of it: After the party failed at the 5 percent hurdle, he worked as an entrepreneur in the health sector.

On Saturday, Kruse had already been chosen as the top candidate of the Elbe Liberals for the federal election.

In both functions he wanted to "leverage synergies" that would result from the combination of office and mandate, he said on Sunday.

His goal is "to prepare this party with a great team for the upcoming elections in the best possible way." September is not just about a lot for him.

"It is my firm will that there will not only be a Bundestag mandate for us, but that we also defend the second mandate and fight back." 2024 will be about the Hamburg districts and Europe.

"From today we are also working on our re-entry into the Hamburg citizenship," said Kruse.

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Oetzel had previously pleaded in vain for a separation of office and parliamentary mandate.

“We need a state chairman who is here at all times.” He “has both feet on the ground in this city.

My place is here in Hamburg, ”he said.

The Altona district parliamentary group chairwoman Katarina Blume, the former federal chairwoman of the Young Liberals, Ria Schröder, the economics professor Andreas Moring and Sonja Jacobsen from Bergedorf were elected as deputy state chairmen.

The new treasurer was Ron Schumacher.

Ria Schröder was also elected to the promising second place on the Bundestag candidate list on Saturday.

So far, the Hamburg liberals have been represented in the Bundestag by Suding and Wieland Schinnenburg.

Schinnenburg also wanted to run as state chairman, but withdrew his candidacy at short notice after he had not been able to be elected to a promising place on the list the day before.

For him, his political career is likely to come to an end.

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Before the vote on her successor, Suding said goodbye in tears. “I'm leaving because I have other plans for my life,” said the 45-year-old. In 15 years of the FDP she has experienced “deepest human abysses”, but also grandiose moments and deep friendships. After seven years at the helm of the Elbe Liberals, she drew a positive balance. "The state executive is in good shape, the finances are in order," said Suding, who was connected to the hybrid party congress. “We have more members than we have in over 26 years.” Currently there are more than 1,600, and the number is rising.

Suding used her farewell speech to sharply criticize the corona policy of the grand coalition in Berlin. It is “unbearable” how much the basic rights are restricted by exit restrictions, “for what I think is a low value”. Therefore, together with other members of the Bundestag faction, she is suing the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe against the federal emergency brake.

Suding, who previously worked in the PR industry, had taken over the party in the worst possible condition and, with an election campaign tailored to her and the slogan "KatJA" - the pictures showed her in a yellow raincoat - surprisingly led it to the state in 2011. The first years were also marked by wing battles in the party, which only ended with the resignation of its greatest adversary, Sylvia Canel, who was state chairman of the FDP Hamburg until 2104. In 2015, Suding succeeded again in leading the Elbe liberals into the citizenship after the FDP had previously suffered severe defeats in numerous state elections. When Suding switched to federal politics in 2017, she was also in talks for a ministerial post at times; However, the FDP then refrained from participating in the formation of a government with the CDU and the Greens.