Profile: The FDP

Free Democratic Party / Freie Demokratische Partei

The FDP is a party in an existential crisis. Their leadership is weakened, their direction unclear and their power base – the educated middle class – is deserting them. A member of the coalition government since 2009.

The FDP – a classical liberal party of free marketeers – have been a member of German coalition governments for nearly 44 out of the 63 years since the foundation of the republic. For much of that time, they were kingmakers – allying with parties from both sides of the political spectrum. Since the early 80s they shifted to the right, becoming the centre-right conservative CDU’s natural coalition partners.

In 1998, the FDP began its longest period in opposition – 11 years. They were no longer kingmakers, the growth of the Green Party (with natural allies in the social democratic SPD) saw an end to the FDP’s hegemony. The party’s response was to elect Guido Westerwelle as leader. Comparatively young and media-savvy, Westerwelle began ‘Project 18’ for the 2005 general election campaign – an attempt to capture 18% of the vote. This did not materialise, managing only 9.8%. Due in part to this disappointing result, none of the traditional party combinations could muster a stable majority and the resulting ‘Grand Coalition’ of the social democrats (SPD) and conservatives (CDU) left the FDP out in the cold for another 4 years.

Increasing unhappiness with this ‘Grand Coalition’ and the promise of lower taxes led them to nearly reach the project 18 target and enter government in 2009 with 14.8% of the vote – a post-war high. They replaced the SPD as a junior coalition partner, and Westerwelle took the unofficial title of vice-chancellor.

Despite this historic win, Westerwelle’s style in office quickly began to grate. He took the position of foreign minister, despite little previous diplomatic experience and even less foreign language ability. This, combined with a lack of a firm timetable for promised tax cuts, led to a perception that the FPD weren’t achieving much in government. Westerwelle’s performance in the foreign office and in public as well as his obstinate refusal to go quietly did nothing to improve the party’s fortunes. Eventually, infighting gripped the party and Westerwelle stepped down as party leader (but not foreign minister, a position he still holds) in May 2011.

Phillip Rösler was the man to replace him who, along with FDP General Secretary Christian Linder and Patrick Döring (christened the ‘boygroup’ by the German press), attempted to rejuvenate the party. Unfortunately for them, their ham-fisted response to the European debt crisis threatens to push the party into complete collapse.

The FDP – like all mainstream German parties – is nominally pro-European; they see Germany at the heart of the European Project. However, the prospect of handing over billions – or even trillions – of German taxpayer euros to incompetent/petulant/corrupt (delete and combine as appropriate) southern European governments isn’t exactly appealing to the mainly low-tax and free market FDP. The FDP leadership, as part of coalition government, have backed Germany’s contribution to European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) – but rebels within the party forced a vote on the issue in December 2011. In a breathtaking display of incompetence, both Rösler and Lindner announced the vote had failed to reach quorum – two days before it even closed.

Subsequently, and again in a rather undignified fashion, Lindner resigned. Many leading members of the FDP didn’t even know about the resignation until hearing about it from media reports.

All though this, polling suggests that the FDP’s support has declined well below the 5% needed to enter the Bundestag*. It is truly a party in crisis, and come the 2013 general elections, may be completely wiped off the map.

*This is under the proportional representation element of German federal elections. Voters can directly elect some candidates, and the FDP may return a few members this way, but without the 5% they would cease to be a real force in German politics.