At a time when the three parties in Olaf Scholz's government are already having great difficulty reaching an agreement on their draft budget for 2025, a new point of contention is fracturing the German Chancellor's coalition even further. Under the title, "A policy for the car," the Free Democrats presented a series of measures on Monday, August 12, which were greeted with dismay by their Social Democrat and Green partners.

The main one concerns short-term parking in city centers. Ideally, the Free Democratic Party (FDP, center right) would like to see this free of charge, but it is proposing the introduction of a nationwide season ticket, similar to the rail pass allowing unlimited travel throughout Germany for €49 a month.

To make life easier for motorists, the FDP is also proposing to make the creation of bicycle lanes and pedestrian streets more complicated, by forcing local authorities to consult more with residents and businesses before making any decisions in this direction.

"We don't want an anti-car policy based on ever more bans," said FDP Secretary General Bijan Djir-Sarai at the presentation of the plan, which also promises to put a stop to "European Union projects against diesel vehicles" and wants to make Germany "more attractive" to those wishing to develop motorsport in general and Formula 1 in particular. "In terms of transport, we want to ease the constraints on motorists and oppose the policy of trusteeship advocated by the Greens," said Djir-Sarai.

Unsurprisingly, the latter rejected their coalition partners' proposals. "It makes no sense to pit cars against pedestrians," said the vice president of the Bundestag's Green Group, Andreas Audretsch. "Believing that increasing the number of cars will boost economic activity in city centers is a dangerous mistake," said Belit Onay, Hanover's Green mayor.

At the Social Democratic Party (SPD, center left), Scholz's party, the reaction was equally icy. "The FDP is exploiting the car theme in a populist mode in the run-up to the forthcoming regional elections [scheduled for September in three Länder in former East Germany]. In the way it pits modes of transport against each other, it is reverting to a vision of the 1970s," said MP Detlef Müller, a specialist in transport issues at the SPD.

Already absent from the regional parliaments of Saxony and Brandenburg, the FDP, traditionally weak in the east of the country, could this time also be ousted from the Thuringian parliament. In this region, where they currently have four MPs, the Liberals are only credited with 2% to 3% of voting intentions, far from the 5% needed to be represented in the regional parliament.

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