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FDP lists coalition criteria ahead of German election

By EARLE GALE in London | China Daily Global | Updated: 2021-09-16 09:58

Germany's Free Democratic Party (FDP) leader Christian Lindner. [Photo/Agencies]

A political party that may hold the balance of power after next week's German election has detailed what it would want out of a coalition government.

Christian Lindner, leader of the Free Democrats, or FDP, told the Financial Times newspaper his party could indeed partner with the Social Democrats-or SPD - and the Greens, but only if they agree to cut taxes, curb borrowing, and return to pre-pandemic spending rules.

"The prerequisite for us joining any coalition is that we can't have tax increases and we respect the constitutional debt brake," he said ahead of the Sept 26 election. "Whoever wants to do something else will have to look for another partner."

Pre-election polling suggests the ruling center-right coalition involving the Christian Democratic Union, or CDU, and the Christian Social Union, or CSU, could be edged out by a coalition involving the SPD, the Greens, and the FDP.

In such an eventuality, experts say Lindner would likely become Germany's next finance minister, a role that would make him one of Europe's most powerful politicians.

But the Financial Times notes that a coalition in which the financially prudent Lindner holds Germany's purse strings could frustrate the SPD and Greens, which both favor raising taxes and increasing public spending.

Lindner is a supporter of Germany's debt brake, which is a constitutional curb on new borrowing that limits debt to 0.35 percent of GDP.The Greens have said they want to ignore it and spend an additional 500 billion euros ($592 billion).

"They have to make us the right offer," Lindner said of speculation about a future coalition. "But, right now, I lack the imaginative powers to see what that offer could be."

Pre-election polling has the SPD ahead of all other parties, with 25 percent of the vote, and the CDU/CSU alliance in close second, with 21 percent. The Greens have 17 percent and the FDP have 11.

The CDU/CSU alliance, which Chancellor Angela Merkel currently leads, has run Germany since 2005.

Merkel, who became party leader in 2000, is not seeking reelection as chancellor and her party's choice for leader and potential new chancellor, Armin Laschet, has proven to be unpopular with voters.

The SPD and its leader Olaf Scholz have enjoyed a surge in approval ratings recently but would likely need the support of the FDP, and the financially prudent Lindner, to wrest control of the Bundestag from the CDU/CSU, the BBC notes.

The Times newspaper, meanwhile, says many Europeans see Merkel as a future president of the European Union.

A survey by the European Council on Foreign Relations found 41 percent of respondents saw her as a safe pair of hands.

Around a third of respondents said they want the next German leader to guide the nation to a leadership role in the bloc.

Piotr Buras, co-author of a report based on the survey, said: "What the EU needs now is a visionary Germany that will stand up for the bloc's values and defend its place in the world."

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