Lindner in the “Report from Berlin”: There should be no talks in the Bundestag before the vote of confidence

Berliner Zeitung Lindner in the “Report from Berlin”: There should be no talks in the Bundestag before the vote of confidence Article by Ulrich Seidler • 1 hour • 2 minutes reading time FDP leader Christian Lindner is reluctant to be available to deal with the recent past. The finance minister, who was personally held responsible for the failure of the traffic light coalition and dismissed from office by Olaf Scholz last week, maintains civil relations with the current head of government, but nothing more. Olaf Scholz put him on the street, he told the FAZ on Sunday, “but I feel comfortable on the street”. Direction of view: forward. “In the current situation, I am completely absorbed in political management. The emotional processing comes later.” But he is probably not alluding to having more time soon once his party has been voted out of the Bundestag. Quite the opposite. When he was interviewed by ARD's capital studio director Markus Preiß in Sunday's "Report from Berlin," the election campaign had already begun. He turned down the opportunity for a personal revenge against Olaf Scholz, who, according to media reports, even called Lindner a "bad person": "I am expressly not taking part in this. The citizens can judge how they feel when the head of government in the fourth largest economic power in the world apparently speaks like this about former government partners." He would not have thought that Scholz wanted to campaign from the Federal Chancellery. And now we are right in the middle of it. Lindner claims a kind of design mandate and sees his party in a new mode after leaving government responsibility: "Many people tell me that after the years of the traffic light coalition, they recognize the love of freedom, the market economy foundation, the reason and the courage of the FDP again," he told the FAZ. And in the report from Berlin he goes on to say: "To be specific, I want to continue to look after the citizens' tax money." His application for the office of Finance Minister after the election shows almost as much overflowing self-confidence as Robert Habeck's candidacy for Chancellor. According to Lindner, Scholz is only leading a "rump government" and should clear the way for new elections. When asked by Preiß whether the jointly developed laws could still be implemented, with the keyword being cold progression, Lindner chimes in. He suggested an orderly end to the traffic light coalition, they could have scheduled new elections together, acted as executives until then and "agreed this and that together".