FDP under fire over strategy paper on quitting Scholz’s coalition

 

By Ulrich Steinkohl and Sascha Meyer, dpa

 

BERLIN – The public release of an internal strategy paper from Germany’s pro-business liberal Free Democrats (FDP) that lays out a plan for bringing down the coalition government has made waves in German politics.

Two top FDP officials announced their resignations on Friday, a day after the strategy paper was published by the party itself. The strategy paper detailed a scenario for the FDP to quit German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition government, a move described in a header in the paper as “D-Day.” Several phases are described, the final being “start of open warfare.”

In fact, Scholz fired the FDP’s top politician, ex-finance minister Christian Lindner, on November 6 after months of bitter disagreements over budget plans for 2025.

The FDP quit the coalition in response, a move that triggered its collapse and early elections, which are expected to be held on February 23.

A spokesman for Scholz said on Friday that the FDP strategy paper makes clear that Scholz made the right decision to sack Lindner.

“The chancellor feels confirmed in his decision by the current publications, and he thinks that he made the right decision in this context,” deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner told journalists in Berlin. Critics of the FDP have viewed the internal paper as evidence that the party intentionally undermined the government to trigger the coalition’s collapse.

The party’s general secretary, Bijan Djir-Sarai, and the party’s operational manager, Carsten Reymann, said in separate announcements that they were stepping down after the scandal over the document made front pages across the country.

Leading FDP officials said it was drawn up by staff and the contents were not known to the leadership.

The question of who was mainly responsible for the collapse of Germany’s three-way coalition on November 6 – and the subsequent move towards fresh elections – has been the subject of intense debate.

The FDP paper – nicknamed the “D-Day Paper” – states that the “ideal timing” for an exit from the coalition would be in the middle of calendar week 45, so between November 4 and 10.

Lindner, Scholz and Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck of the Greens were unable to agree on ways to deal with a budget shortfall, and each blamed the other for not making the necessary concessions. Lindner, a budget hawk, had adamantly refused to loosen strict rules limiting government debt or allow the coalition to borrow money to finance large projects.

Polls have shown the FDP losing support during the three years as part of Scholz’s coalition government, and the party may now be in danger in the upcoming election of falling below the 5% threshold generally needed to take seats in parliament.

Speculation has swirled since Lindner’s sacking about whether the budget debate itself was a sideshow, and whether either side had in fact long planned the end of the coalition.

Djir-Sarai had previously denied that the formulation “D-Day” had been used by the party in reference to the collapse of the coalition.

In the surprise press conference on Friday – lasting less than a minute – he said that he had “no knowledge” of the D-Day Paper, but admitted he had “unwittingly provided false information” to the public. He apologized, and said he wanted to avert damage from his party and was therefore stepping down.