BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – According to election researcher Thorsten Faas, the defeat in the Berlin repeat election is causing further distress for the FDP nationwide. “The FDP is a clear loser in the election,” Faas told the German Press Agency. “It shows that the party as a whole is in a very, very difficult situation.”
The Free Democrats failed at the five percent hurdle in the repeated election to the Berlin House of Representatives on Sunday. They also did poorly in the last state elections in other federal states.
The FDP is “not at peace with itself when it comes to co-governing traffic lights,” said Faas, a professor of politics at the Free University of Berlin. An opposition within the governing coalition does not work either. “These are big challenges and they won’t go away.”
The basic idea of the traffic light as a progress coalition worked quite well at the beginning, said Faas. “Then the Russia-Ukraine war brought the classic welfare state and economic issues to the fore again, on which the SPD, Greens and FDP found it difficult to get together.” All traffic light partners must distinguish themselves, but the coalition must not come across as a troop of chaos. This will succeed if you “find a positive story for this traffic light again,” said Faas./vsr/DP/zb