The (''Freie Demokratische Partei'' - FDP) is a
Liberal Political Party in
Germany . The party's ideology combines
Free-market economics with broad
Individual Liberties . The FDP is currently the third-largest party in the
Bundestag .
The FDP was formed on
December 11 ,
1948 , by local liberal parties. These were founded since 1945 by former members of the liberal
German Democratic Party (DDP) and some from the center-right
German People's Party (DVP). The FDP's first chairman,
Theodor Heuss , was a former leader of the DDP. The FDP has traditionally been composed mainly of
Middle-class and
Upper-class Protestants who consider themselves "independents" and heirs to the
European Liberal Tradition . The party is a relatively weak institutional party, gaining between 5.8 and 12.8% of the votes in federal elections. However, it has participated as a junior partner in all but six postwar federal governments in coalition with either the
Christian Democrats (CDU) or the
Social Democrats (SPD). Thus it has spent only about 15 years out of government since
1949 . It has generally distinguished itself from the CDU and the SPD by advocating more market oriented policies.
The party became involved in controversy after ironically declaring itself to be the party of the "Besserverdienenden" ("better-earning people"), after the SPD had advocated a special tax for the "Besserverdienenden". Political adversaries say it opposes the interests of poorer people.
Over the course of its history the party's economic policies have shifted between
Social Liberalism (in an European meaning) and
Market Liberalism . However, since the
1980s the FDP has maintained a for German standards consistent free-market stance. Many of it policies acknowledge that certain aims can not be reached by market mechanisms alone and would not be seen as free-market policies in America. Examples for this are a support of a minimum welfare eglibility for everybody and strong anti-trust policies.
Regarding social issues as e.g. civil rights, immigration, its attitude to religion in the public sphere or anti-discrimination of homosexuals the party has always been social-liberal (in the American usage of the word), especially more so than the CDU or the SPD. In contrast to SPD and CDU it is in favour of ending
Conscription In Germany .
In foreign policy the FDP supports European integration and transatlantic partnership.
In all federal election campaigns since the 1980s, the party has sided with the CDU and CSU, the main conservative parties in Germany. Following German reunification in
1990 , the FDP merged with the
Association Of Free Democrats , a grouping of liberals from
East Germany . During the
1990s , the FDP won between 6.2 and 11 percent of the vote in Bundestag elections. Between 1990 and 1998, it served as the junior partner in the government of Chancellor
Helmut Kohl of the CDU.
In the
2005 General Election the party received 9.8 percent and 61 federal deputies, a unpredicted jump from prior opinion polls. This has been explained as
Tactical Voting by those who support strong economic reforms. However, because the CDU did less well than predicted, the FDP and the CDU could not form a coalition government. The disagreements over social issues (the FDP liberal, the CDU conservative) also complicated a coalition agreement. The party was considered as a potential member of various possible
Coalitions , following the election. The FDP was considered as a partner with the Social Democrats and Greens but most Free Democrats felt that the Social Democrats were not bold enough on
Economic Reform . It was also considered in an CDU-FDP-Green Coalition, but the
Greens quickly ruled not to participate in a coalition with the CDU. Instead, the CDU formed a "
Grand Coalition " with the SPD, and the FDP entered the
Opposition .
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The party's motto is "So viel Staat wie nötig, so wenig Staat wie möglich!", meaning "as much state as necessary, as little state as possible!"
