FDP party congress: Mr Lindner, who is in charge of the state, and his chain dog

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The Free Democrats, Christian Lindner announced at the party congress this weekend, are financially more capable of acting than they have been for a long time.

The party was over-indebted for several years, now it has a net worth of more than 2.5 million euros in its books.

"Handling your own finances well," said Lindner, "by the way, that is also an application to take on responsibility elsewhere."

That is what this party convention was about: The FDP presented itself as one body and ready to join a federal government - if the voters want it.

Party leader Lindner made it clear that he is aiming to take over the finance ministry.

In return, the 42-year-old not only put the party fund in order, but also changed his demeanor.

The gifted speaker has imposed rhetorical restraint.

Since the beginning of the year he has been reining in his tongue, weighing the words, refraining from overly aggressive attacks, and reading important speeches in the Bundestag from the paper from time to time - previously unthinkable.

He also refrained from personal attacks on political competition at the party congress.

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On the contrary, he even found words of praise for the candidates for chancellor from the CDU, SPD and Greens, and formulated his criticism of these parties solely in terms of content.

And he called on the FDP to be self-confident, but also to be “humble and humble” in view of the tasks that will come after the election.

Humility and modesty - these are of course qualities that Wolfgang Kubicki was not born with.

“Wolfgang chatters and disrupts lessons”, was already written in one of his primary school certificates, as he once said himself - and this is what Lindner's deputy at the party leadership thinks to this day.

Neither his age (69) nor the dignified office of Vice President of the Bundestag was able to politically domesticate the man from Kiel.

Wolfgang Kubicki: "God save Bavaria - and us from Söder"

Source: dpa / Michael Kappeler

In the past few months there has been virtually no member of the federal government who Kubicki has not tackled - above all the Chancellor.

Angela Merkel (CDU) behaved like "the governess of Germany" in the corona pandemic, Kubicki complained.

They only produce debacles, "mask, vaccine and test debacles", and damage "Germany's international reputation" with their mistakes in crisis management.

Her legacy after 16 years of government is the "lulling of the population" and "this moral disdain for dissenting opinions".

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Health Minister Jens Spahn and Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (both CDU) are further representatives of a “complete government failure” for Kubicki.

Spahn is "not up to his task", his "replacement" is overdue.

Altmaier also belonged "released from his office as Minister of Economics".

The man is "a complete failure" and does not know how the economy works.

Kubicki blessed Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) with the words "God protect Bavaria - and us from Söder." And the SPD also got its fat.

He would find it "to be honest, ridiculous if Mr. Scholz said he could become Chancellor".

Kubicki's goal is to overtake the Social Democrats in the federal election and to become the third strongest force with the FDP.

Now one could get the idea that this chain dog, which can hardly be tamed, thwarted Lindner's plan for a serious external representation of the FDP.

But that is not the case.

Lindner knows that you have to bite your calf during election campaigns.

It's more of a kind of job sharing.

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Kubicki, as the chairman said at the party congress, was not only “my fatherly friend and partner”, but also “one of the sharpest-tongued advocates of free speech and freedom of expression in our country - from whom I benefit a lot because he sometimes works with the Pointe and the sharpness say things that only he can say. "

Kubicki speaks of an "unsettled division of labor that has actually developed that way." He always liked to argue - and wants to keep it that way: "I don't have to be a government official anymore because I don't want to take over a government office" - unlike Lindner. In any case, the FDP is satisfied with their leadership duo. Lindner was confirmed in office with 93 percent of the delegate's votes, Kubicki with 88 percent.