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FDP politician Kubicki sees a “touch of megalomania” in Friedrich Merz

Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa

FDP deputy party leader Wolfgang Kubicki is trying to show a sign of unity after the recurring disputes within the traffic light coalition. The FDP is not planning to leave the government alliance with the SPD and the Greens, Kubicki told the newspapers of the Funke media group. He was responding to calls from CDU leader Friedrich Merz to possibly hold new elections this fall.

"The fact that he now, in a touch of megalomania, wants to decide for himself when the Bundestag should be re-elected is quite embarrassing," said Bundestag Vice President Kubicki about Merz. He added: "Apart from the fact that the FDP is not planning an exit, it would be prepared even for such an unlikely event."

Kubicki himself recently publicly criticized the traffic lights and called for Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to correct his economic policy. "If we don't turn things around quickly, Germany will be left further and further behind, slide deeper into recession and socially fall apart," Kubicki said at the end of January.

The next federal election will not normally take place until autumn 2025. Merz had mentioned September 22, 2024 as a possible election date in the newspapers of the Funke media group in the event that the traffic light coalition made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP broke up prematurely. “The summer holidays would then be over everywhere, and with the state elections in Brandenburg, the day is already an election Sunday,” said the Union faction leader.

Merz predicts the FDP will fail at the five percent hurdle

When asked whether he believed that would happen, Merz said: "The FDP knows that if it stays in the coalition, it will be thrown out of parliament again in the next federal election. In my opinion, she will therefore not want to go into the election campaign as part of the traffic light. This would expose her to suspicion that she wants to continue in this coalition.

Kubicki, for his part, took a dig at the Union in the report: “The much more exciting question is whether the Union now wants to go into a federal election for the second time with a candidate who many people in the country reject and, above all, large parts of the country “Don’t like his own party?” said Kubicki.

He was apparently alluding to a survey according to which the Union would have the best chances in the federal election campaign with Bavaria's Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) as its candidate for chancellor. The current approval ratings for Merz were also below those for NRW Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU).

According to surveys, the CDU could currently become the strongest force in the federal election, but the so-called K question remains unresolved. The open dispute over the candidacy for chancellor is seen as one reason for the Union's poor election result in the last federal election. The decision on the Union's candidacy for chancellor will not be made until after the elections in East Germany in September.

fek/dpa