Before the Liberals decided to start negotiations on a traffic light coalition with the SPD and the Greens, FDP leader Christian Lindner indirectly confirmed his claim to the Federal Ministry of Finance.
"Only one thing is important to me: each of the three partners must be able to work, must be able to exert an influence," said Lindner on Sunday evening in the ARD program "Report from Berlin".
"There is the Federal Chancellery, there is the Ministry of Finance, there is a new climate ministry," added the FDP leader.
"And I am of the opinion that each of the partners must have the opportunity to work creatively." According to Lindner's ideas, the Greens would obviously take over the climate ministry, the SPD the chancellery and his party the finance department.
Previously, statements by FDP Vice Wolfgang Kubicki and FDP parliamentary group manager Marco Buschmann had already caused a sensation, who advertised Lindner as finance minister.
Habeck: speculation "not helpful"
When asked about Lindner's ambitions on ARD, Greens co-boss Robert Habeck said: “Christian Lindner has never made a secret of the fact that the FDP wants the Ministry of Finance. And that he considers himself called to become finance minister, he made it more than clear in the election campaign. So no surprise at the front. ”But it was“ not helpful if you now get involved in speculation about personnel ”, Habeck warned in the“ Report from Berlin ”. “It is part of fairness, good manners and also political wisdom not to do that now. In case of doubt, you only increase your own height of fall. "
The Greens co-chief admitted once again that his party and the FDP have “very different ideas about financial policy”, especially with regard to the so-called black zero and possible investments in infrastructure. "The competition is there, without question," said Habeck. In order to build trust in the coalition talks, personal ambitions would have to be put on hold. Even with himself he pushes this “always back and pats everyone who twitches on the fingers”. However, Baden-Württemberg's finance minister Danyal Bayaz (Greens) had already advertised Habeck as finance minister. Bayaz wrote on Twitter that he couldn't imagine a better person in this position.
The FDP will be the last of the three traffic light parties to advise on starting coalition negotiations on Monday.
The SPD executive board already agreed on Friday, the Greens spoke out in favor of it at a small party congress on Sunday.
Scholz: "Want to be re-elected too"
On Friday, the traffic light explorers presented a joint result paper that should serve as a basis. FDP leader Christian Lindner strongly promoted the alliance of the FDP, SPD and the Greens. In a guest article in this newspaper, he assured his followers that the FDP would remain “advocate for the middle class”: “Personal responsibility, willingness to perform and equal opportunities remain the benchmarks for our actions - we have proven this in the years of the opposition and this also applies to every kind of government participation. The basic values of freedom and self-determination are not negotiable for us. "
SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz meanwhile relies on a long-term perspective for a traffic light coalition.
“We don't just want to conduct professional traffic light negotiations now, but also govern so well together that we will be re-elected,” Scholz wrote on Twitter on Saturday.
That will succeed if the future federal government shows the citizens: "There is a new beginning, they are making the right decisions for our future."