Christian Lindner wants to turn the immigration and integration debate into an offensive topic for the FDP.

During a visit to the newspaper's political editorial team on Thursday, the FDP chairman and federal finance minister said liberals tend to emphasize the role of common values ​​rather than ethnic origin or religious beliefs, but at the same time demand these values ​​more resolutely than others.

Bureaucratic hurdles must be removed when qualified workers immigrate, while at the same time irregular migration must be limited.

This also requires better enforcement of departure obligations.

The interior minister of the CSU, Horst Seehofer, made no effort whatsoever for readmission agreements with countries of origin.

That is why there is now a special representative for this, the FDP politician Joachim Stamp, who was once the integration minister in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The conditions for naturalization, on the other hand, "must be tightened up".

In order to obtain German citizenship, greater care than before must be taken to ensure that people can really earn their own living.

The regulations for the so-called discretionary naturalization would have to be specified in relation to the applicable law.

"We also have to talk about how we can ensure during naturalization that the new citizens really share the objective value system of the Basic Law." He is always amused when the Union talks about the left-wing migration policy of the traffic light, says Lindner: "Not we governed in 2015, but the Union.”

The Union itself is currently playing on a “socio-political keyboard” on immigration issues that is “not forward-looking”.

As an example, Lindner cited statements by the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz, such as those about "small Paschas" and "social tourism".

"Anyone who argues in such a sweeping manner cannot justify any claim to leadership for modern Germany."

This is not the only reason why he is optimistic about the next federal election.

The Liberals lost percentage points in three out of four state elections last year, and in Lower Saxony they even left the state parliament.

Nevertheless, Lindner expects a double-digit result in 2025.

He is also counting on his strategy of defending the debt brake in the federal budget and strictly separating crisis spending from it for specific purposes by then being confirmed.