FDP before party conference: Kubicki is looking for a way out of the crisis

Analysis FDP in crisis Has the Kubicki effect fizzled out? As of: November 8, 2026 • 3:28 a.m

The FDP is meeting today for a digital party conference. After many electoral defeats, the party is in a deep crisis. So far, even their new chairman Kubicki has been unable to change that.

Things haven't been going well for the FDP for a long time. You have to go back a long way to find an election in which the party won at least five percent of the vote. This was last the case in state elections in Hesse in 2023. Added to this is the election to the European Parliament in 2024. Since then, defeat after defeat has followed.

Martin Hagen is General Secretary of the FDP. In an interview with the ARD capital studio, he recalled that his party's last real success was the 2021 federal election. He firmly assumes that the FDP will “win elections” again in 2027 after “five years of drought”. Getting in the mood for the coming year, with five state elections, will be one of the topics at the FDP's digital party conference today.

Since the break of the traffic light coalition in November 2024, the party has not calmed down. In the federal election in February 2025, the FDP only received 4.3 percent of the votes and has not been represented in the Bundestag since then.

Immediately after the election, Christian Lindner, the long-time leader of the FDP, resigned and Christian Dürr took over the helm.

He subsequently described reorganizing the FDP as a “marathon run”. But his party quickly ran out of patience. After the FDP was also thrown out of the state parliament in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, it was over for Dürr in the spring of 2026.

At the party conference in May, it was surprising that he would run for office. The “two old warhorses” - according to Wolfgang Kubicki - competed. He against Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann. The debates on stage and also between the delegates were heated. What course should the FDP take and what tone should it set - especially when dealing with the AfD?

“Delimitation instead of exclusion, that is my motto,” Kubicki explained before the party conference and that there is no law “that says you are not allowed to talk to the AfD.”

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann said at the party conference that this is not how to win back votes from the AfD. "What we get is the applause and pats on the back from reactionary regulars who will never, ever vote for us when it matters!"

Almost 60 percent of the delegates voted for Kubicki. The hope of many: Wolfgang Kubicki, as the new party leader, would not only bring attention, but also votes in the upcoming state elections. But so far that has not happened.

After his election, the new party leader Kubicki taunts the defeated challenger Strack-Zimmermann. more

In September, the FDP only received 2.6 percent of the vote in the state elections in Saxony-Anhalt. Shortly afterwards it was 2.5 percent in Berlin and 1.0 percent in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Kubicki called the results "devastating" and admitted he expected something different.

So has the hoped-for Kubicki effect fizzled out? He himself doesn't want to know anything about it and emphasized in September that it was clear "that the march is long and rocky."

FDP General Secretary Martin Hagen says some time later that the “state elections in the eastern German states were painful, but they don’t throw us off track.” The FDP knew "that things would be difficult there and our focus is more on the medium-term future."

Next year there will be elections in five countries. In April in Schleswig-Holstein, Saarland and North Rhine-Westphalia, in May in Bremen and in September in Lower Saxony.

“I firmly assume that the FDP can turn the tide in 2027,” says Hagen. This would be vital for the party. The FDP is currently only represented in four of the sixteen state parliaments. In Schleswig-Holstein, North Rhine-Westphalia, Bremen and Hesse. Elections will be held in three of the countries next year.

At the digital party conference today, the FDP will therefore also focus on the upcoming elections. A request: Members should contribute more money to support the election campaigns. The so-called campaign fund, it says in the application, is in “significant financial difficulties”.

In addition: the party has to save money. With every lost election, mandates, employee positions and state party funding are lost. Secretary General Hagen says that “of course it makes it more difficult.” However, he emphasizes that the FDP has "managed well" and can "get along well with the limited resources we have available." The FDP says there are no financial reasons why the party conference is now taking place digitally.

The fact that there is even a party conference again also has to do with the events in May. The program was changed because of the candidacy for the presidency. Now, among other things, it will be discussed whether the FDP can fundamentally have dual leadership in the future.

At least on the sidelines, there will likely be discussions about the right course at this party conference and ultimately the question: How can the FDP prevent the fall into political insignificance?

This topic in the program: tagesschau.de | FDP before party conference: Kubicki effect fizzled out? | 11/06/2026 | 12:39 p.m