Get used to public German government infighting, says leading liberal

Germany and the world should get used to public fights among the parties that make up the country’s government, the leading chief whip of the liberal coalition member FPD, Johannes Vogel, said.

In 2021, the business-friendly FDP, the Greens and the social democrat SPD teamed up to form the first-ever three-way federal government in Berlin. What began in harmonious selfie-taking soon devolved into repeated spats and harsh public exchanges.

“We have a new party system, and that means coalitions consist of parties that see political issues quite differently,” Vogel told reporters in Berlin on Thursday.

“Then you have to come to a joint position, which has to be more than the lowest common denominator,” he added.

In the past months, however, this has led to disputes within the coalition, with the latest major spat over some 30 disagreements – ranging from state support for children to speedier construction of highways – requiring a 30-hour-long high-level meeting behind closed doors.

While Vogel said he was “very satisfied with the last few weeks”, he expects such disagreements to persist as the political landscape in Germany moves from two dominant centre-left and centre-right big-tent parties to a multipolar party system.

“In Germany, we no longer have a party system with two formerly larger mainstream parties and some smaller parties and two supposed camps as we did a few years ago.”

This weekend, the FDP will host its members for a party congress, even though more members have started to express their discontent over the government’s recently adopted boiler ban, which could result in the next public fight just being days away.

(Nikolaus J. Kurmayer | EURACTIV.de)