Although the Free Democrats (FDP) are a part of Germany’s governing traffic light coalition, the party is increasingly at odds with its own partners on issues such as illegal immigration, energy policy, and plans to distribute huge sums of money to citizens.
Leading these critiques is the deputy leader of FDP, Wolfgang Kubicki, who has launched another attack against the other two parties, the Greens and the Social Democrats (SPD), that make up the coalition.
The 70-year-old vice-president of the Bundestag described the migration policy as “an absolute piece from the madhouse.” The federal government is now financing “on behalf of the state a refugee ship in the Mediterranean for private sea rescue.” That is completely against the interests of “the southern EU countries and also against our own,” he said.
As Germany grapples with over 1.2 million migrants in less than a year amid a raging inflation crisis, a majority of the public believes that the country is accepting too many. Despite the criticism from Kubicki, FDP itself has long promoted mass immigration, including proposals to increase the number of accepted migrants to 500,000 per year to satisfy the demands of big business. However, Germans’ souring mood on immigration may be contributing to FDP’s decision to criticize its own coalition government on the issue.
Kubicki also slammed the government’s plans to distribute more free money known as “citizen money,” according to German newspaper Bild. He admitted that the party rejects citizen money while still advocating for it to the public.
“We as FDP are currently defending the citizen’s income – although that goes completely against the grain: We eliminate the incentive to go to work full-time if we allow high additional income opportunities with the citizen’s income. Work is no longer worthwhile,” Kubicki said.
When it comes to energy policy, Kubicki does not agree with the federal government either. The fact that nuclear power plants will not continue to run until mid-2024 is “the biggest toad that we FDP have swallowed.” It also annoys him “to death that we suddenly don’t want to produce any gas in the North Sea because Climate and Energy Minister Robert Habeck no longer wants it.”
