Head of German pro-business party quits after election fiasco

Party leader Christian Dürr and the executive board of Germany’s pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) resigned on Monday following a pair of crushing election defeats — with Dürr vowing to return.

The FDP flopped in two state elections this month in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate, failing to clear the 5 percent threshold for representation and being forced to exit both regional parliaments. The party had previously been part of Germany’s federal governing coalition from 2021 to 2024.

“Things cannot continue as they are. And today, the FDP federal executive board has taken responsibility for that,” Dürr said at a press conference Monday evening.

For all his contrition, Dürr told journalists that he and Secretary-General Nicole Büttner will both run for re-election at a party conference in May, where a new leader will be chosen. “I have already read in some media reports that the FDP leadership and I are giving up. I have no intention of giving up,” Dürr said.

At a Monday party meeting Dürr offered to submit to a confidence vote by the party’s executive board, but the board declined. A new 40-member board will also be elected at the May conference.

Dürr was elected to the FDP leadership in May 2025, succeeding long-time leader and former federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner.

Germany holds five state elections in 2026, with Saxony-Anhalt, Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania going to the polls in September.