Everything about Free Democratic Party Germany totally explained
The
Free Democratic Party (
Freie Demokratische Partei, FDP) is a right wing
political party in
Germany. The party's ideology combines beliefs in individual liberty, in a state or government "that is as small as possible and as large as necessary" (
so viel Staat wie nötig, so wenig Staat wie möglich!). It promotes a
market economy, with traditional features of the German
social welfare system. The FDP is currently the third-largest party in the
Bundestag. In foreign policy the FDP supports European integration and transatlantic partnership.
The party has generally distinguished itself from the CDU and the SPD by advocating more market-oriented policies. The party has also been associated with the label "Partei der Besserverdienenden" ("Party of the better-earning people"), which the party had coined in a draft manifesto for the 1994 federal elections. Political adversaries have often used this term to argue that the FDP opposes the interests of poorer people.
The FDP has traditionally been composed mainly of
middle-class and
upper-class Protestants who consider themselves to be
independents and heirs to the
European liberal tradition. The party is a relatively weak institutional party, gaining between 5.8 and 12.8% of the votes in federal elections. However, it has held the
balance of power for most of the Federal Republic's existence. It was the junior partner in coalition governments with the
Christian Democrats (CDU) from
1949 to
1956 and from
1982 to
1998, and with the
Social Democrats (SPD) from
1969 to
1982, thereby participating in governments in 41 years.
History
The FDP was formed on
11 December 1948, by local liberal parties. These were founded in
1945 on the remnants of the
center-right German People's Party (DVP) and the
centre-left German Democratic Party (DDP). The FDP's first Chairman,
Theodor Heuss, was a former member of the DDP.
Throughout its history, the party's economic policies have shifted between
social liberalism (in the European sense) and
market liberalism. Since the 1980s the FDP has maintained a consistently free-market stance, by German standards. However, many of its policies acknowledge that certain aims can't be reached by market mechanisms alone and wouldn't be seen as free-market policies in, for example, the USA; so the FDP supports a minimum standard of welfare protections for all and strong anti-trust policies, for example.
In all federal election campaigns since the 1980s, the party has sided with the CDU and CSU, the main
center-right parties in Germany. An exception to this rule was the 2002 campaign, where "equidistance" to CDU and SPD was claimed. Following German reunification in 1990, the FDP merged with the
Association of Free Democrats, a grouping of liberals from
East Germany. During the 1990s, the FDP won between 6.2 and 11 percent of the vote in Bundestag elections. Between 1982 and 1998, it served as the junior partner in the government of Chancellor
Helmut Kohl of the CDU.
2005 federal election
In the
2005 general election the party won 9.8 percent of the vote and 61 federal deputies, an unpredicted improvement from prior opinion polls. It is believed that this was partly due to
tactical voting by CDU-CSU supporters who supported strong economic reforms. However, because the CDU did less well than predicted, the FDP and the CDU were unable to form a coalition government (a contrast to the situation after the 2002 federal election where a coalition between the two parties was impossible primarily because of the weak results of the FDP).
Disagreements over social issues (the FDP taking a liberal stance, the CDU more conservative) also complicated a coalition agreement. The party was considered as a potential member of various possible
political coalitions, following the election. One possibility was a partnership between the FDP, the Social Democrats and
Greens, but most Free Democrats felt that the Social Democrats were not bold enough on
economic reform. Also considered was a CDU-FDP-Green coalition (called "Jamaica Coalition" because of the party colours, the same as those of the
Jamaican flag), but the Greens quickly ruled out participation in any coalition with the CDU-CSU (
Joschka Fischer in particular dismissed the possibility out of hand). Instead, the CDU formed a
grand coalition with the SPD, and the FDP entered the
opposition. FDP leader Guido Westerwelle became Leader of the Opposition on account of the Free Democrats' position as the largest non-government party in the Bundestag.
Leadership
Chairmen of the party since 1948:
Further Information
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