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FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai

Photo: IMAGO/Chris Emil Janssen / IMAGO/Chris Emil Janßen

FDP General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai openly promotes black and yellow. "I am firmly convinced that a bourgeois coalition of the CDU, CSU and FDP would be able not only to properly analyze the country's problems together, but also to actually find solutions together," said Djir-Sarai to "Bild am Sunday".

This is obviously not so easy with the current coalition partners, the SPD and the Greens. "I wouldn't have to explain the basics of the social market economy every time in joint meetings with representatives of the CDU and CSU."

The FDP general secretary did not directly call for a break in the traffic light coalition; this would depend on the SPD and, above all, the Greens. They lack the right methods to combat the climate crisis. "If you want ecological transformation, if you want functioning social security systems like our coalition partners, you have to be aware that we need the economic success of this country as a prerequisite for this." If you don't have an economic basis in Germany, then you will in all of them policy areas fail.

And so the Secretary General would like to wait over the next few weeks to see what conclusions the other coalition partners draw from this. “My impression so far is that the Greens are not yet on the path to drawing these and implementing these necessities.” Germany needs an economics minister “who is able to see things as they are. And then be able to draw the right conclusions from it.” Djir-Sarai left it open whether this could lead to a break in the coalition.

Too many subject areas left to the green-left zeitgeist

Djir-Sarai is expecting a double-digit result for the FDP in the coming federal election: "I am firmly convinced of this and that is clearly my goal." It is important to campaign aggressively again "that we need middle-class majorities in Germany, in order to tackle the problems and challenges in the country." The FDP, CDU and CSU have made politically strategic mistakes in recent years and left many subject areas to the green-left zeitgeist.

About CDU leader Friedrich Merz's flirtation with a black-green coalition, the FDP politician says: "I know Friedrich Merz and am firmly convinced that he cannot ignore the party's primary wishes. And there is a great need to govern with the FDP within the Union as well.

Criticism also of the Greens' blockade of the payment card for asylum seekers

The FDP General Secretary is also taking on the Greens when it comes to payment cards for asylum seekers. Djir-Sarai said in an interview with Welt TV: "It's extremely strange that the instruments that were agreed upon are then suddenly called into question." The arguments against the payment card are "excuses." The idea behind this is “that you don’t want a certain form of migration policy.”

However, the FDP is of the opinion that “we have to do much better, especially when it comes to the management, control and limitation of irregular migration in Germany and Europe.” Djir-Sarai pointed out that there was an agreement on the payment card both in the coalition and with the federal states. The states expected that this would now be adhered to.

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