The FDP is opposed to wiretapping, although the FDP originally supported ' Großer Lauschangriff '.

The FDP is opposed to a tightening of the penal code, and instead supports for the recruitment of more police officers, judges, and prosecutors to improve security and speed up trials.

Large sections of the SPD increasingly opposed his security policy while most of the FDP politicians strongly supported that policy ; while representatives of the left wing of the Social Democratic Party opposed reduction of the state expenditures, the FDP began proposing a monetarist economic policy.

Critics inside and outside the FDP have accused him of focusing on public relations, as opposed to developing and promoting sound public policy, especially in the election campaign of 2002.

Möllemann was President of the FDP in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia ( NRW ) from 1983 to 1994 and again from 1996 to 2002, and also was the chairman of the FDP fraction in the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia from June 2000 to October 2002.

* 1996: Joined the FDP

* Edzard Schmidt-Jortzig ( FDP ) 1996 – 1998

This coalition was ruled out, because the FDP considered the Social Democrats and the Greens insufficiently committed to market-oriented economic reform.

This was the situation in Germany in 2005 when Angela Merkel became Chancellor: in early elections, the CDU / CSU did not garner enough votes to form a majority coalition with the FDP ; similarly the SPD and Greens did not have enough votes to continue on with their formerly ruling coalition.

The FDP supports gay rights ; former party leader Guido Westerwelle is openly gay.

Led by Finance Minister Otto Graf Lambsdorff ( 1926 – 2009 ) the FDP adopted the market-oriented " Kiel Theses " in 1977 ; it rejected the Keynesian emphasis on consumer demand, and proposed to reduce social welfare spending, and try to introduce policies to stimulate production and facilitate jobs.

After serving in several party offices, he was appointed Minister of the Interior by Chancellor Willy Brandt, whose Social Democratic Party was in coalition with the FDP, in 1969 ; in 1974, he became foreign minister and Vice Chancellor.

On 23 April 1972, Wilhelm Helms ( FDP ) left the coalition ; the FDP politicians Knud von Kühlmann-Stumm and Gerhard Kienbaum also declared that they would vote against Brandt ; thus, Brandt had lost his majority.

In the 2002 national election, he produced a flyer criticizing Ariel Sharon's actions against Palestinians and Michel Friedman's endorsement of those actions ; the flyer was regarded as " antisemitic " by some, and the debate surrounding these events led to Möllemann leaving the FDP in March 2003 and resigning his position as NRW party leader ; however, he kept his seat in the Bundestag without party affiliation, despite promises to resign from it.

The Liberal Democratic Party of GDR also had some contacts with the West German FDP ; in 1960s and 1970s, the relations were cool, but contacts intensified in 1980s.

Fears in the Italian electorate of a possible Communist takeover proved crucial for the electoral outcome on 18 April ; the Christian Democrats ( Democrazia Cristiana ), under the undisputed leadership of Alcide De Gasperi won a resounding victory with 48 percent of the vote ( their best result ever, and not repeated since ) while the FDP only received 31 percent of the votes.

A number of non-voting members ( elected in 1949: 2 CDU, 5 SPD, 1 FDP ; joined in February 1952 by: 3 CDU, 4 SPD, 4 FDP ) indirectly elected by the West Berlin legislature ( Stadtverordnetenversammlung ) are included below in parentheses.

By the early 1900s, Saxony's local politics had settled into a niche in which Social-Democrats ( predecessors to today's SPD ), Conservatives ( predecessors to today's CDU ), and so-called National-Liberals ( who have no ideological descendants today ; perhaps a fusion of FDP free-marketism and the NPD's voelkisch ideals ) were splitting the share of votes and Landtag seats three ways.

Lambsdorff led the FDP to adopt the market-oriented " Kiel Theses " in 1977 ; it rejected the Keynesian emphasis on consumer demand, and proposed to reduce social welfare spending, and try to introduce policies to stimulate production and facilitate jobs.

The only minister-president of Württemberg-Baden was Reinhold Maier ( DVP, then FDP ; 1946 – 1952 ).

The term refers to an association between the symbolic colors of the parties in such a coalition — black for the CDU / CSU ; yellow for the FDP ; and green for the Green Party — and the colors of the flag of Jamaica.

FDP leaders had stated that they would rather remain in opposition than form a coalition with the SPD or the Greens ; outgoing Green leader Joschka Fischer also dismissed the possibility: " Can you really see Angela Merkel and Edmund Stoiber sitting round the table in dreadlocks?

When the votes were counted, the party doubled its federal vote from 1. 9 million ( PDS result in 2002 ) to more than 4 million — including an electoral breakthrough in industrial Saarland where, for the first time in a western state, it surpassed the Greens and FDP due, in large part to Lafontaine's popularity and Saarland roots.

Under his leadership the FDP returned to the House with a final voting result of 9. 9 %.

Despite an increased result of the SPD, they lost the seat to Johannes Semler ( CSU ), who was supported by BP and FDP.

The FDP retained their seats in the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia, which was held six months after the federal election, but out of the seven state elections that have been held since 2009, the FDP have lost all their seats in five of them due to failing to cross the 5 % threshold.

' ( Strong applause from CDU / DA, DSU, FDP, partly SPD and the deputies standing up in their seats.

After failing to keep their majority in the general election 36 days after the wall went up, the CDU / CSU again needed to include the FDP in a coalition government.

The SPS improved their position in Gruyères rising to first, from third in 2007 ( with 21. 4 %) The CVP moved from first in 2007 ( with 27. 9 %) to second in 2011, the SVP moved from second in 2007 ( with 25. 0 %) to third and the FDP retained about the same popularity ( 15. 9 % in 2007 ).

Though Kohl's election was done according to the Basic Law, some voices criticized the move as the FDP had fought its 1980 campaign on the side of the SPD and even placed Chancellor Schmidt on some of their campaign posters.

The SPD quickly gained popularity and succeeded in forming a social-liberal coalition with the FDP following the 1969 federal election, forcing the CDU out of power for the first time in their history.

Although the CDU / CSU lost support in the 2009 federal elections, the FDP experienced the best election cycle in their history, thereby enabling a CDU / CSU-FDP coalition.

But, the CDU / CSU, the FDP and the SPD rejected Die Linke's request that Klarsfeld be allowed to meet with their factions.

While industrial leaders and both the conservative and economically liberal parliamentary parties such as the CDU, the CSU, and the FDP strongly supported Agenda 2010 as it implemented their long-time demands, there was a strong upheaval in Schröder's own social democratic party.

The delegates of the Christian Democratic Union ( CDU ) already formed a united faction with their Christian Social ( CSU ) colleagues from Bavaria, as did the liberal Free Democratic Party ( FDP ) together with the Hessian Liberal-Democratic Party and the Democratic People's Party ( DVP ) from Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern.

The Social-liberal coalition of SPD and FDP had lost its majority after several Bundestag MPs ( like former FDP ministers Erich Mende and Heinz Starke or SPD partisan Herbert Hupka ) had left their party and become members of the CDU / CSU opposition to protest against Chancellor Willy Brandt's Neue Ostpolitik, especially against the de facto recognition of the Oder-Neisse line by the 1970 Treaty of Warsaw.

On 30 May, when the law was voted on, the FDP was the only party to stand firm against their introduction.

It was a victory for the Christian Democratic Union, who received enough seats to form a coalition with their preferred partner, the FDP, and end the previous government formed by the Social Democratic Party and the Greens, who also ruled at the federal level.

On 28 September 2008, the CSU failed to gain an absolute majority, attaining 43 %, of the vote in the Bavaria state election for the first time since 1966 on a percentage basis and was forced into a coalition with the FDP.

Even after the 2009 general election, the CDU / CSU emerged as the largest party in Germany, yet both lost votes predominantly to the FDP.

At other times, for example after the 2002 federal election, a coalition between the FDP and CDU / CSU was impossible primarily because of the weak results of the FDP.

In the snap elections in North Rhine-Westphalia a week later, the FDP not only crossed the threshold, but also increased its share of the votes to 2 percentage points higher than the previous state election.

In June 2010, in the first state election following the victory of the CDU / CSU and FDP in the 2009 federal election, the " black-yellow " CDU-FDP coalition in North Rhine-Westphalia under Jürgen Rüttgers lost its majority.

After the election of 1969, the SPD preferred to form a coalition with the FDP, ending the uninterrupted post-war reign of the CDU chancellors.

During the 1976 election campaign, the SPD / FDP coalition was able to win the battle of statistics, whether the figures related to employee ’ s incomes, strikes, unemployment, growth, or public sector debts.

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 24. 9 % of the vote.

As he was elected with the help of most delegates of the Free Democratic Party ( FDP / Liberals ) his election was generally understood as a sign of the re-orientation of the FDP with regard to a future coalition with the SPD ( Social-liberal coalition, October 1969-October 1982 ).

In the 2007 election the most popular party was the FDP which received 30. 2 % of the vote.

In the 1969 election, the SPD — headed by Willy Brandt — gained enough votes to form a coalition government with the FDP.

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 26. 6 % of the vote.

In the 2007 federal election the most popular party was the FDP which received 88 % of the vote.