He drives a Porsche privately. Luxuriously, he just got married on Sylt. In the ZDF summer interview on “Berlin direct”, however, Finance Minister Christian Lindner does everything to avoid too much comfort – and adds a clear warning: “One cause of inflation is the state’s spending policy.”
Porsche Lindner? Sylt-Lindner? Cornucopia Lindner? In private, Christian Lindner is doing quite well in public. Can we also look forward to lavish work with the Federal Minister of Finance? Christian Lindner counteracts the impression visually. The summer interviews on public television are often conducted in a feel-good atmosphere. Interviewer Theo Koll has just announced “a politically hot autumn”. The questioner and respondent then sit down. A kind of desk has been set up for her in the middle of Berlin, somewhere outdoors between the Bundestag and the main train station, little greenery and a lot of ground burned in the summer heat. The Federal Minister of Finance and FDP chairman seems to have tried very hard to create a working atmosphere. No Sylt. No luxury. However, he does not entirely escape the Porsche.
“A word about your relationship with Porsche,” Theo Koll formulates his question, and he adds: “Not about the classic car in your garage.” Christian Lindner probably didn’t like this memory of the wedding photos. He stays professional. The interview is actually about the fact that the Federal Minister of Finance is said to have campaigned for support in the matter of e-fuels in a text message to the Porsche boss. He rejects the suspicion of influence. The company did not approach him. On the contrary: “I asked Mr. Blume if he didn’t want to present his technical arguments in public – I influenced him, if you will.” Lindner describes it as a move to maintain openness to technology. And to avoid premature restrictions due to technical specifications.
Mobility remains one of the major topics of the ZDF summer interview. The 9-euro ticket was sold 40 million times this summer – after a brief initial skepticism, local transport was used massively. “They call it the ‘free mentality’,” says Theo Koll. And what does Linder answer when it comes to this new love of Germans for cheap train travel? The Minister of Finance sticks to the concept of free mentality. “It would be an illusion to believe that we could make public transport free of charge,” he says very clearly. “It’s not something we can afford in the long run – someone has to pay for it.”
He also defends the debt brake: “It will be suspended in the event of an external shock that cannot be influenced. We’ve been living with the Ukraine war for a long time,” Lindner clarifies. And he adds a clear warning: “One cause of inflation is also the government’s spending policy.”
On the day before the amount of the gas surcharge is announced, mobility is not just about energy and costs. After all, staying at home will also become considerably more expensive. The heating costs for a family of four will increase by up to 1,400 euros. “I wrote to Brussels to avert VAT on it,” says the finance minister, who does not want to make additional tax profits in this case: “It is the political will of the federal government – we do not want to benefit from the gas levy.” Christian Lindner does not want to reach out to energy companies, some of which quintupled their profits during the energy crisis in the Ukraine war – and without doing anything of their own. “My feeling is that something is being done about the excess profit tax,” he says. But only to reject this tax very clearly: “We would surrender our tax system to arbitrariness.”
The Minister of Finance is not making himself popular with this. “They are very far away from the majority of people,” Theo Koll also makes clear and confronts the FDP chairman with the fall in popularity of his party – from 14 percent in October to seven percent in the current political barometer. Lindner also doesn’t seem to want to strive for a feel-good atmosphere: “I’m subject to my oath of office, I have to do what I’m convinced of. The office of finance minister is not comfortable at every stage.” And then he adds: “It’s uncomfortable, but I’m ready for it.” Of course, the politician can still be populist. When it comes to the average income in Germany, Lindner gestures around the group and refers to “the people in Germany who earn thirty, forty, fifty thousand euros a year – and that’s the people here with technology.”
