24 Apr, 2024
On 8 December, four German liberal ministers from ALDE Party member FDP took oath and entered the new coalition government. Ministers belonging to the new cabinet include party leader Christian Lindner as Minister of Finance, Alliance Of Her alumna Bettina Stark-Watzinger as Minister of Education & Research, FDP Secretary General Volker Wissing as Minister of Transport & Digital Affairs and Marco Buschmann as Minister of Justice.
Liberals negotiated with the Greens and Social Democrats for five weeks to reach a solid coalition agreement and form the so-called traffic light coalition. The agreement, titled ‘Mehr Forschritt Wagen’ (‘Dare to Make More Progress’) includes several liberal wins, which you can read more about here.
FDP members approved the coalition text on Sunday 5 December at their extraordinary convention with a 92,24% approval rate.
Es ist vollbracht! 💪 Wir haben heute dem #Koalitionsvertrag mit 92,24 % zugestimmt. Wagen wir den Fortschritt. Jetzt ist die Zeit für einen Aufbruch. #FangenWirAn 🚀 #BPT21 pic.twitter.com/u4d7qPUPnc
— FDP (@fdp) December 5, 2021
FDP Secretary General Volker Wissing was pleased of this result and stated that Germans are at the brink of a new chapter:
"We, the Free Democrats, have renewed ourselves. Now we are ready to renew our country. We are ready to take office!”
"Wir Freien Demokraten haben uns erneuert. Nun sind wir bereit, unser Land zu erneuern."
— Volker Wissing (@Wissing) December 6, 2021
👉Meine Rede auf dem Bundesparteitag der @fdp: https://t.co/hWkpx2v1V7#FangenWirAn
You can watch the FDP convention below.
On 7 December, FDP leader Lindner officially signed this joint programme at the Futurium exhibition centre in Berlin stating that:
“Now the time for action begins. Our common goal is to achieve more progress, but we are under no illusion. The challenges we are facing are considerable."
You can watch the speeches the coalition leaders made during the signature here.
The coalition was fully approved when the German parliament voted in in favour of Olaf Scholz (SPD-S&D) becoming Germany's next Federal Chancellor, who won the post with a majority of 395 votes.
👏 Congratulations to @c_lindner, @MarcoBuschmann, @starkwatzinger and @Wissing, new ministers in the German government from our member @fdp! Read more: https://t.co/MF41zDsF8G #ALDEParty pic.twitter.com/mOWPmHnpkG
— ALDE Party (@ALDEParty) December 8, 2021
Jetzt beginnt die Zeit der Tat. Der gemeinsame Koalitionsvertrag 🔴🟢🟡von @spdde, @Die_Gruenen und @FDP wurde heute unterzeichnet. 💪🚀
— FDP (@fdp) December 7, 2021
Hier findest Du den #Koalitionsvertrag: https://t.co/YDBDJ6boup pic.twitter.com/MKFsiHGfBv
