Party planned "open field battle" "D-Day" paper puts FDP leadership in need of explanation

Did the FDP deliberately work towards the break-up of the traffic light government for weeks? The Liberals deny this. An internal paper allows other interpretations - the party leadership is struggling for explanations.

A detailed paper by the FDP on the exit from the traffic light coalition has left the party leadership in need of an explanation and has also met with criticism from liberals. FDP executive committee member Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann told the Deutsche Presse-Agentur that, in view of the situation in the government, it was right to look at exit scenarios. But: "The choice of words is not conducive to the cause, and writing with this tone is not comprehensible." She called for self-criticism and reappraisal, as she later emphasized again on X. The "D-Day" paper caused great indignation among the former coalition partners SPD and Greens.

The FDP itself published the eight-page document in the style of a PowerPoint presentation on Thursday, after the news portal "Table.Briefings" had already reported on it. Prior to this, an investigation by " Die Zeit" had already triggered major discussions about the causes and authors of the coalition break-up. According to the report, scenarios for the end of the coalition have been played out in several meetings of the closest FDP leadership since the end of September.

Ticker on the German government crisisCoalition with traffic lights collapses +++ Chancellor Scholz dismisses Finance Minister Lindner

Strategy paper describes scenarios for "D-Day"

The FDP paper that has now been published has been criticized not only for its content, but also for its choice of words. The term "D-Day", which was historically coined during the Second World War, appears several times in the document - as a synonym for the possible time of exit from the joint government with the SPD and Greens.

"D-Day" can be translated from English as "Day X" - or also mean "Day of Decision". In German, the phrase is primarily known in connection with the Allied landings in Normandy to liberate Europe from National Socialism. D-Day on June 6, 1944 marked the beginning of this process, but it also stands for inhumane bloodshed, tens of thousands of dead and wounded.

In an interview with RTL/ntv on 18 November, FDP Secretary General Bijan Djir-Sarai emphasized the following with regard to media reports at the time about the "D-Day" phrase: "That's not true. This term was not used." Following the publication of the FDP paper, he now tried to limit the damage in the "Welt" newspaper: "The paper was written at staff level. Nobody in the FDP leadership knew about the paper." He did not see any reason to resign.

There was also criticism and ridicule on social media for the widely shared image of a "process pyramid" from the document. This shows the four different "D-Day" phases from the first "impulse" - a press statement by party chairman Christian Lindner - to the "start of the open field battle".

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SPD demands an apology

The paper also sparked outrage among the former coalition partners. SPD General Secretary Matthias Miersch accused the FDP leadership of repeatedly misleading the public and demanded an apology from Lindner. Miersch told Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND) that it was "cynical" that the FDP had used the word "D-Day" in its paper to describe the time of the break with the traffic light system and had described the subsequent election campaign as an "open field battle". "The FDP leadership has always denied using these terms."

SPD leader Lars Klingbeil wrote on Platform X: "It's good that everything is slowly coming out and citizens can get an idea." Green parliamentary group leader Britta Hasselmann also expressed criticism on X: "A parliament is not a battlefield, and the struggle for the best ideas and concepts is part of our living democracy. This FDP should not take responsibility for our country."

Traffic light coalition brokenIs this just the beginning of a much bigger crisis?

FDP speaks of "preparing for scenarios"

The FDP spread the message that it had made the paper public in order to create transparency - and wrote on X: "We have nothing to hide." In a statement published in response, Djir-Sarai said: "We have never made a secret of the fact that without an economic turnaround, the end of the traffic light could be a possible outcome of what we call the autumn of decisions." He spoke of scandalizing the preparation for scenarios. "If the entire German media landscape was already speculating about the end of traffic lights at this point, then it is only professional to prepare for this option."

For example, the now published paper states that the "ideal time" for an "announced exit" from the coalition could be in the middle of the 45th calendar week between 4 and 10 November. On November 6, the long-struggling alliance actually broke down when Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) dismissed FDP leader Lindner as finance minister at a meeting of the coalition committee.

A new Bundestag election is scheduled for February 23 next year. The FDP is currently polling at three to four percent, just below the five percent threshold, and could therefore miss out on re-entering parliament.

dpa