Former Minister Wissing Criticizes FDP's Course - Ex-FDP minister slams party's libertarian shift as 'highly questionable'
Volker Wissing, the former FDP transport minister, has sharply criticised his old party's direction. In recent interviews, he called its shift towards libertarian policies 'highly questionable' and warned of serious consequences for its future. His comments come after the FDP failed to win any seats in the 2025 federal election and now struggles in opinion polls below the five-percent threshold. Wissing left the FDP following the collapse of the Ampel coalition in 2024 but stayed on in the cabinet. He has since made it clear he has no intention of returning to the party, saying he is content working as a lawyer. His criticism centres on the FDP's ideological turn, which he argues has weakened its core liberal principles.
He pointed to the party's decision to abandon the coalition as a major error. According to Wissing, the FDP entered government in 2021 with a different agenda—one more focused on classical liberalism. Instead, it made compromises that sacrificed key values for political power, such as joining forces with the SPD and Greens in an alliance he described as fundamentally incompatible.
Recent moves, like supporting a parliamentary reform in Sachsen-Anhalt in March 2026, have reinforced his concerns. The FDP backed a cross-party measure with the CDU, Linke, SPD, and Greens to shield institutions from so-called 'antidemocrats.' Wissing sees this as evidence of the party prioritising state intervention over individual freedom, a clear departure from its traditional stance.
He also blamed the FDP's poor polling on its ideological drift. Before the 2025 election, he repeatedly warned leaders that abandoning the coalition risked an existential crisis. Now, with the party shut out of parliament, his warnings appear to have been justified. The FDP's current struggles reflect its failure to secure parliamentary representation in 2025 and its ongoing decline in voter support. Wissing's critique highlights a party he believes has lost its way by moving away from classical liberalism. His decision to step back from politics underscores the depth of the divide between his vision and the FDP's present course.
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