Christian Lindner rarely leaves any doubts about wanting to participate in government in the coming legislative period.

He almost claims to hold the office of Federal Minister of Finance.

To strive for a ministry so explicitly during the election campaign is unusual.

Lindner, on the other hand, does not want to be understood as dubious - an image that the FDP is still struggling with after its rejection of the Jamaica coalition in 2017.

Marlene Grunert

Editor in politics.

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When the top candidate of the Liberals answered questions from the FAZ readers on Thursday, he emphasized: As in 2017, the FDP will also decide this year according to content. The prerequisite for a “traffic light coalition” with the SPD and the Greens is an “attractive offer” to the FDP. If you put the programs next to each other, great differences became apparent. When asked about “red lines”, Lindner named two “guard rails”: There would be no tax increases, Germany was already the “highest tax country”. A loosening of the debt brake could not be done with his party either.

The real estate crisis in many major German cities must be solved by "building", added Lindner, not by interfering with the freedom of contract and ownership. It is important to “put a government out of the middle and prevent another shift to the left”. It depends on the FDP and for this, above all, their distance to the Greens must be reduced. A representative survey that the Allensbach Institute carried out for the FAZ last week found the FDP at 10.5 percent and the Greens at 17 percent.

In terms of climate protection, according to Lindner, it was neglected to take action against global warming “using market-based means”. You need a “regulatory framework” that contains a CO2 cap, for example, that specifies a budget for emissions. How it is used must be decided in a “market-based ideas competition” with “technology openness”. Lindner promoted emissions trading, which would lead to operators wanting to shut down their lignite plants for economic reasons rather than politicians would like.

Lindner said that in the corona pandemic, the FDP had shown "the greatest sensitivity for fundamental rights" without relativizing the risk of the virus.

Lindner sees a certain “danger to self-determination” in the idea of ​​“only allowing those who have been vaccinated and recovered to participate in social life”.

Considerations to deny access to the restaurant to those with negative tests by the state have nothing to do with effective pandemic control.

After Union chancellor candidate Armin Laschet, Lindner was the second top candidate to answer questions from FAZ readers.

This Friday, the SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz, next week the Greens co-chair Robert Habeck.

Subscribers can register in the FAZ-Vorteilswelt at meinabo.faz.net and ask their questions.