Members of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) of Germany, during a poll on the topic of leaving the ruling coalition, voted that the party should remain in the government of the country, but the advantage over supporters of leaving the cabinet did not exceed 5 percentage points.
⠀
In October, about 30 FDP politicians signed a letter to the party leadership demanding withdrawal from the ruling coalition, which is often called a “traffic light”.
⠀
The letter says that remaining in the ruling coalition damages the image of the FDP, which negatively affects its popularity ratings and has already led to electoral failure in Bavaria and Hesse. In November, the DPA news agency reported that the FDP was to survey its members about remaining in the governing coalition with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens. At the same time, the head of the FDP, Christian Lindner, nevertheless expressed his clear position on this issue at the end of December: he believes that it is better for the party to remain in the government of the country.
⠀
“Since mid-December, 26 thousand out of 76 thousand party members took part in the digital voting. Result: 12,444 for leaving the traffic light (47.8%). But 13,614 people (52.2%) were against it,” Bild writes.
⠀
Thus, supporters of the withdrawal of the FDP from the ruling coalition did not receive a majority of votes, and, despite the remaining disagreements within the ruling coalition, the Scholz government will remain in place for now.
⠀
In recent months, amid rising prices and disagreements within the ruling coalition, its rating has been at a low level. Various opposition forces have repeatedly called for the dissolution of the government and early elections.
