The state elections in Lower Saxony have become a disaster for the FDP. She didn’t even get five percent of the vote. It is now necessary to look at the physics of power. The FDP must now prove that they can make loot.
The principle of relativity discovered by Albert Einstein, which states that the laws of physics apply equally to all terrestrial bodies, must also be applied to Christian Lindner.
At the latest after the election day in Lower Saxony, when the FDP lost almost 2/3 of its former voters compared to the 2017 federal election, a look at the physics of power is required.
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The law of gravitation is one of the fundamental laws of classical physics. Politics works according to exactly the same laws.
However, unlike the way Isaac Newton left us, calculations are not made in tons and kilograms, but in votes and seats in parliament. Whoever weighs the most can transform their demands into politics with almost physical precision.
The FDP is the smallest partner of the traffic light and was further weakened at the weekend by flopping out of the Lower Saxony state parliament. After this fourth electoral defeat in a row, there was a loss of gravity, which is of no help in pushing through originally liberal content.
If the weight of the FDP and thus the gravitational potential calculated by Newton dwindles, a party begins to become shaky. A lean FDP is not an attractive sight for the remaining voters. They want their party leader to triumph and not starve. He has to train for that now: you can’t starve yourself for muscles.
The fictitious story of the red, green and yellow musketeers setting out together to reform the country at the beginning of the coalition has since been exposed as a fairy tale.
The storytellers who sat in the party headquarters and also in many editorial offices have fallen silent. The law of centrifugal force in a three-party coalition is stronger than any narrative.
Centrifugal force, correctly defined as centrifugal force (from Latin centrum and fugere, to flee), throws the various parts out of the center under pressure. The political partners are – we know the principle of the chain carousel and the salad spinner – scattered from the previously jointly occupied center in all directions.
Especially after a defeat, the party with the greatest visibility problem wants and needs to be perceived as something of its own and no longer as part of a cool clique that has agreed to exercise power together.
The staging of Christian, Robert, Olaf, Volker and Annalena as a remake of Enid Blyton’s “Family Five” is not a hit with the public. Losing elections always and everywhere leads to centrifugal acceleration – which in this case does not have to be a disadvantage.
The FDP must now prove that they can make loot. The initial pats for the political opponent did not pay off for Lindner. On the contrary: they have led to reactions of rejection among the voters – see the migration movement towards the CDU and AfD. You want to see Lindner fight, not cuddle.
This basic physical mechanism should give hope to the FDP. Because this law of motion states that the change in momentum is possible and is directly dependent on the force expended.
Translated to the political universe, this means that the momentum can be changed by a strong effort by the party leader and his team. The FDP is not doomed to consumption.
The necessary effort could consist in pulling the ball out against the other coalition partners and conducting the dispute over the red-green welfare state expansion and the commercial distribution of debt with greater severity.
The FDP is elected so that it slows down Habeck and does not caress it. Liberals want the smart government, not the fat one. Lindner should revitalize Germany, not anesthetize it with state money.
The migrants – including those from the Ukraine – should not be taken to the counters of the social welfare offices, but should be accompanied to the factory and office. The pull factor of the German welfare state should be combined with the push factor of the meritocracy.
That’s why from now on it’s said: Friction generates energy, preferably energy that warms liberal voters. However, the party chairman and finance minister must trigger the energetic initial spark for this, which should put a considerable strain on the coalition climate. What does not cost anything is not worth anything.
But be careful, risk of injury: This energetic initial spark can also backfire. Every FDP disruptive maneuver must look like statecraft and not smell like party tactics. Most citizens are very sensitive to this difference.
Conclusion: Christian Lindner is still sitting in the stronghold that is called the Faraday cage after the British physicist Michael Faraday. The metallically coated interior – for example in the car or in the airplane – guarantees electrical shielding.
In this inner space of power, Lindner is protected from the lightning bolts of his inner-party opponents. At least as long as the FDP leader manages to keep the outer skin of his authority compact and impenetrable.
With every election defeat, however, the outer skin becomes more porous. Each crack increases the risk of lightning strikes. Or as the physics book says, “The extent of electrical penetration depends on the extent of the opening.”
Gabor Steingart is one of the best-known journalists in the country. He publishes the newsletter The Pioneer Briefing. The podcast of the same name is Germany’s leading daily podcast for politics and business. Since May 2020, Steingart has been working with his editorial staff on the ship “The Pioneer One”. Before founding Media Pioneer, Steingart was, among other things, Chairman of the Management Board of the Handelsblatt Media Group. You can subscribe to his free newsletter here.
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