There was a lot of reporting and even more discussion about the Sylt wedding of Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner. Now Alice Schwarzer has also joined the debate: in an online column in the women’s magazine “Emma”, the publisher and founder of the newspaper sharply criticizes the FDP chairman. “Have they completely lost their minds?” Schwarzer asks right at the beginning of the article: “Don’t they even know what’s proper anymore?”
Above all, it is the inappropriate time that the 79-year-old is annoyed about. After all, the costly celebration takes place “at a time when inflation is galloping, people are becoming unemployed, the gas is being turned off for the elderly and the poor; in times when war is next door and more people are starving in Africa because of it”. The journalist is annoyed that the taxpayer pays for the protection provided by the police and federal authorities. However, Schwarzer is also surprised by “the petty-bourgeois kitsch” that Lindner and his wife Franca Lehfeldt produced with pictures in the Porsche, for example.
It is not the first time that Alice Schwarzer has vehemently railed against the FDP politician. As she recalls in her current column, in 2020 she first gave the liberal the abusive title “Sexist Man Alive”. At the time, she called Linder a “wannabe man – at the expense of women.” The fact that Lindner celebrates so sophisticatedly in times of social hardship seems to confirm her dislike. Schwarzer at the end of her diatribe: “What kind of political personnel do we Germans have? And what else do we citizens actually put up with?!”
The 43-year-old Christian Lindner and his wife, who was ten years his junior, had already been married in a civil registry office on Thursday. The church wedding followed on Saturday, followed by a celebration in the Sylt noble restaurant “Sansibar”. The guests included Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD), the CDU leader Friedrich Merz and his predecessor Armin Laschet.
One of the first prominent critical voices came a few days before the celebration from comedian Ilka Bessin (“Cindy from Marzahn”). She wrote in a widely received Instagram post: “I just don’t understand why we have to pay the security forces with our tax money.” Most recently, the Protestant theologian Margot Käßmann complained to “Bild am Sonntag” that the bridal couple had the St. Severin Church in Keitum misused as a mere “backdrop”. “Why do two people want a church wedding who have deliberately left the church and have publicly declared that they do not see themselves as Christians?”
The actor Armin Rohde also looks at the wedding with incomprehension, he is quoted by “Bild”: “I don’t want to congratulate. A finance minister who takes so much money from the long-term unemployed and at the same time marries so opulently deserves no congratulations.” In fact, parallel to the multi-day ceremony on Sylt, reports had been published that Lindner was planning drastic cuts in the support of the long-term unemployed to relieve the budget.
The newlyweds received encouragement at the weekend on RTL. In the magazine “stern TV am Sonntag”, “Let’s Dance” juror Joachim Llambi countered the accusation of bad timing by saying that the “ceremonies” were certainly planned “a year in advance or longer”. Everyone has the right to say: “I want to celebrate my wedding the way I like it.” Llambi: “We Germans are always very critical. If the neighbor has a nicer fence, we’re jealous.” He is certain that the whole issue will have been settled “the week after next”.
More about the Lindner wedding:
Christian Lindner’s wedding was a big topic in political circles at the weekend. Colleagues from all parties diligently congratulated the finance minister. Too bad that some congratulations and one or the other offer went to the wrong Christian Lindner.
As the highlight of their three-day celebrations, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) and journalist Franca Lehfeldt also said yes in church on Sylt. Two stars of the VOX show “Between Tulle and Tears” judge Lehfeldt’s wedding dress for BUNTE.de.
The original of this post “”Zum Kotzen”: Alice Schwarzer wails about Lindner’s wedding” comes from Teleschau.
