Düsseldorf (dpa / lnw) – After the FDP defeat in the state elections, the Young Liberals in North Rhine-Westphalia are demanding the resignation of state party leader Joachim Stamp and the entire board. “After the bitter and clear defeat, the party needs a personnel realignment,” said July state chairman Alexander Steffen to the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger” (Friday). In a strategy paper, the FDP youth organization proposes that the entire FDP state executive resign at the next ordinary state party conference in early 2023.
This weekend, the state FDP is coming together for a closed conference in the Oberberg district. There, the Julis want to present the six-page paper analyzing the mistakes made in the state elections in mid-May. The Young Liberals accuse the party leadership around State President Stamp of serious strategic errors.
“In the last state election campaign, the CDU was able to campaign better with our own ideas than we could,” says the paper available to the German Press Agency and the “Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger”. Successes such as keeping special schools open, establishing talent schools in deprived areas or a balanced integration policy have rarely been attributed to the FDP. “Too often, the successes for the coalition as a whole were taken,” it continues. The FDP had not succeeded in distinguishing itself from the CDU with strong personalities with a recognizable profile.
The FDP had co-governed as a coalition partner of the CDU in North Rhine-Westphalia since 2017. In the state elections, the liberals fell to 5.9 percent (2017: 12.6 percent), while the CDU was the clear winner with 35.7 percent. This means that the black-yellow coalition cannot continue to govern. The CDU is now negotiating a coalition with the Greens.
The head of the FDP parliamentary group, which has been reduced to twelve members, has already been renewed. The new group leader is 35-year-old Henning Höne. He had backed FDP state chief Joachim Stamp, who was previously Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Families and Refugees. Höne succeeded Christof Rasche (59), who was initially re-elected as parliamentary group leader shortly after the election, but then gave up his position and became deputy president of the state parliament.
