Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) has warned his party not to flirt with leaving the traffic light coalition. “I can only warn against simplifying further and further in a complex society according to the motto: The traffic lights are stupid.”, he told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” according to information from Friday. “What should be fundamentally better in other coalitions?” asked Wissing.
“In Jamaica, a CDU chancellor would have to show much more consideration for the Greens.” Anyone who remembers the black-yellow government coalition before 2013 also knows: “Even with the CDU alone it is not free of conflict.”
Wissing emphasized that the voters had given politicians the mandate to work together across camps. “Then we should stop discussing whether the sovereign made the right decisionbut rather accept the task of being a kind of clearinghouse for social conflicts.” A democracy thrives on compromise that can reach a majority.
At the same time, Wissing objected to the impression that the FDP might be preparing to leave the coalition with the planned economic turnaround resolutions at its party conference this weekend. “This is the FDP party conference, not the traffic light,” emphasized the minister.
“We decide what we as a party of the social market economy believe is right for society.” This is also a contribution to winning back dissatisfied voters before they strengthen the margins in protest. “As a party, the SPD and the Greens also make demands that they do not agree with us in advance.”
In the past few days, the FDP had caused criticism, especially from the SPD, with a twelve-point paper on the economic turnaround because the plans, among other things, envisage cuts in the welfare state. Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) even saw the paper as the traffic light coalition’s “divorce certificate”. At their party conference this weekend, the Liberals want to discuss, among other things, a key proposal for an economic turnaround.