FThe FDP is about everything in 2021. Party leader Christian Lindner has formulated the goal for the Bundestag election as to lead the liberals into the federal government. At the same time, the FDP must demonstrate its political relevance in no fewer than six state elections. In order to turn the weak poll values, Benedikt Brechtken, head of the Young Liberals in Recklinghausen, urged his party in a WELT contribution (Dare more liberal provocation) to show clear edges on three topics: capitalism, nuclear power, genetic engineering.

Capitalism, he writes, is the best and most social thing that has ever happened to mankind, due to the surge in prosperity it triggered. Genetic engineering in the form of golden rice can save up to two million lives annually. Nuclear energy contributes like no other energy source to the 1.5 degree target and is extremely safe, while coal energy kills many people.

An overheated housing market, millions of bonuses for scandalous managers and risky banking deals that are dragging entire economies into the abyss. Is the free market to blame for such excesses? WELT editor Moritz Seyffarth is investigating this question.

Source: WELT | kci, mgi, sey

Tactically, there is some reason to believe that, as a small party, you should adopt a strategy of maximum intensification. However, the provocation must also be reliable in terms of content. If you critically tap Brechtkens demands, they quickly collapse. So it was the unbridled casino capitalism (Hans-Werner Sinn) that plunged the world into the 2008 financial crisis. Many economies still suffer from the subsequent impoverishment.

The return to extremely costly nuclear energy is not even demanded by the energy industry itself, which has long since switched to renewables. Its worth taking a look at the topic of nuclear fusion, keyword ITER. And when it comes to green genetic engineering, even the Greens write in the draft of their new basic program that research in this field should be strengthened. Here too, the FDP is not waving a unique position. In short: the Brechtkensche Weg is a wrong way. The provocation fades away like a sparkler.

And yet the FDP has an urgent need to review its course, strategy, and canon of issues. The last state elections were disappointing, the federal government looks black and green, while personnel speculation is blowing around the Hans-Dietrich-Genscher-Haus. What has to happen

The FDP must recognize that the world has changed. You dont have to be a left-wing man to state that the gap between rich and poor has increased significantly. The resulting uncertainty in the population is deep. With Corona, this uncertainty continues to grow: people fear for their jobs, their pensions, their security. Questions about the resilience of society dominate the discussion.

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From a liberal perspective, freedom is the sense of politics (Hannah Arendt). The FDP should hold onto this compass without compromising. But it must add social aspects to its core of freedom: liberalism must become more inclusive and broaden its perspective.

Here are some suggestions. Christian Lindner personally should visit a nursing home and find out about the situation of the four million people in need of care in Germany. Conclusive concepts for improving our inefficient care system are urgently needed. Schoolchildren from immigrant families need special support so that they can fulfill their promise of advancement in our performance-oriented society. Here the FDP can set its own valuable accents.

In the tenant country Germany, tenants must be relieved of the fear of being kicked out of their four walls tomorrow. A policy approach that primarily favors investors and owners falls short. When it comes to poverty in old age, the recent decisions by the Union and the SPD are by no means convincing a huge opportunity for the FDP to reposition itself as an advocate for the older generation.

And finally: The demand to abolish the soli for the top ten percent has not been fitting since Corona at the latest. The state needs money, high earners dont really hurt the two or three thousand euros, while entrepreneurs can invest as a corporation at any time. To Benedikt Brechtken: No longer demanding the abolition of the soli for everyone that would be real liberal courage.

Hans Bellstedt (born 1963) is an entrepreneur, lecturer in political communication at the TU Berlin and a member of the FDP.

Hans Bellstedt

Source: Bellstedt

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Liberalism debate: How the FDP may be profitable once more WORLD - Pledge Times