Its leader and finance minister, Christian Lindner, sees the Liberal Party (FDP) as a guarantor to prevent a possible shift of the federal government to the left.

“An important role for the FDP is to ensure that Germany is ruled from the center and not shifted to the left,” Mr. Lindner told Welt TV. “We created a coalition not because we were automatically close in terms of the content of our positions, but because we have political and state responsibility,” the FDP leader said, referring to the differences found in the ruling coalition.

Our role is to “bring liberal energy to the coalition and thereby increase opportunities for progress, provide incentives, economic freedom, openness to technology and economic stability,” he added.

Regarding the possibility of extending the operation of nuclear power plants, a central point of contention between the three government parties, Mr. Lindner told BILD yesterday that “we must work to ensure that the gas crisis does not lead to an electricity crisis”, and repeated that “there are many arguments in favor of not shutting down safe and climate-friendly nuclear power plants, but using them until 2024 if necessary.”

There are currently three nuclear power plants connected to the German grid: in Lower Saxony, Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. Under current law, they all have to close at the end of the year, the FDP is asking for a few months of extension, and the Greens seem to be open to discussion. However, Economics Minister Robert Humbeck (Greens) has previously called for a “stress test” for electricity sufficiency.

From the Treasury side, Christian Lindner’s chief adviser Lars Feld stresses in an interview with Handelsblatt that “Germany is in highly uncertain waters” and fiscal easing cannot be hoped for now. “The economic turmoil in the first half of the year was just the beginning,” Mr. Feld assesses and warns that there is a strong possibility that Germany will experience a clear two-quarter downturn in its economy this year.

Source: RES-IPE