FDP wählt Wolfgang Kubicki zum neuen Vorsitzenden – 74-Jähriger setzt sich in Kampfabstimmung gegen Strack-Zimmermann durch

A surprise challenge

Wolfgang Kubicki has been elected as the new federal chairman of Germany's Free Democratic Party (FDP) at the party's federal congress in Berlin. The 74-year-old secured 390 of the 658 valid delegate votes, or 59.3 percent, defeating Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, who received 259 votes. Strack-Zimmermann, a defence expert and MEP, launched her candidacy at the last minute, having been nominated by 33 delegates just before the vote, meeting the required quorum under the FDP's statutes.

And that is why I decided to provide an alternative here.

Strack-Zimmermann justified her surprise candidacy by arguing that the party needed a fresh start, which she believed she could embody better than Kubicki. She also sharply criticised the debate around the so-called "firewall" to the AfD, which had been fuelled by Kubicki and his designated general secretary Martin Hagen. Kubicki, however, had previously rejected any cooperation with the AfD unequivocally.

There will never be any cooperation with the AfD with the Liberals, never.

A party in crisis

The leadership change marks the FDP's second personnel overhaul within twelve months. After the party failed to clear the five-percent threshold in the February 2025 federal election, former parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr took over the chairmanship. He was unable to reverse the party's fortunes, and this year the FDP suffered bitter defeats in state elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, failing to enter either state parliament. The party's presidium and federal executive subsequently resigned.

In his farewell speech, Dürr sharply criticised the black-red federal government under Chancellor Friedrich Merz, accusing the CDU and SPD of excessive debt policies and a lack of reform will. He noted that after one year in office, Merz's government was the most unpopular in German history.

After just one year, to be more unpopular than Olaf Scholz at the end of his term – you have to manage that first.

Kubicki's vision

Kubicki, who joined the FDP in 1971, used his candidacy speech to position the party as a force for the social market economy and civil liberties. He lamented that a "completely distorted image" of the FDP had taken hold in the public and said the party itself had failed to convey a different picture. He called for the FDP to become the voice of "those who roll up their sleeves every day – from master craftsmen to nurses, from snack bar owners in big cities to farmers, from employees to managers."

Kubicki is considered a right-leaning liberal within the party spectrum, known for his criticism of excessive state regulation, his advocacy for free speech, and a clearly pro-business, market-liberal profile. The 68-year-old Strack-Zimmermann, by contrast, represents a more social-liberal wing and chairs the defence committee in the European Parliament. The two have long been seen as internal rivals.

The road ahead

The FDP is currently represented in only six of Germany's 16 state parliaments and participates in just one state government, in Saxony-Anhalt – a coalition that could be lost after state elections in September. Kubicki has set himself the goal of stabilising the party and lifting it back above the five-percent threshold within a year.

After 55 years of FDP membership, one simply has to forgive me for not wanting to watch my party go under.

He acknowledged that he does not embody a generational change, stating: "I am no longer the future of the FDP, but I can give the FDP a future." The party congress itself was marked by a restless atmosphere, with delegates talking over speeches and the chair repeatedly calling for order. Noticeably absent from the proceedings was any substantial self-criticism regarding the mistakes made during the traffic-light coalition or the government's collapse.