Further consequences may follow the outcome of the election in the state of Brandenburg, with the leader of the Liberal Party (FDP) and finance minister Christian Lindner leaving open the possibility of leaving the federal government coalition.

The FDP got just 0.8% at the polls in Brandenburg. “One thing is clear: courage is now required from everyone. That is either the courage to work in a controversial coalition and if good things can be achieved for the country, or the courage, if we reach the limits of what is possible and do not meet the expectations and demands of the country, to trigger a new dynamic,” Lindner said on the sidelines of an emergency “crisis management meeting” he had today with leading members of his party.

Earlier, FDP general secretary Biyan Gir-Saray had given the impression that the decision to leave the governing coalition had already been taken. “A government that is no longer able to face the challenges in the country with a joint effort will have to question itself,” he said, referring to an “autumn of decisions”. The party’s deputy chairman Wolfgang Kubiki also said that if the government fails within the next two to three weeks to find a “common denominator”, there is no longer any point in continuing to participate. He even predicted that the federal government, “with this performance,” would not last until the end of the year.

The left is also in dire straits

The left is in a similar situation, which after the departure of Zara Wagenknecht, who has also founded a new party, is sliding down the polls in areas that were once dominant.

In yesterday’s election it received just 3% and was left out of parliament for the first time. This follows losses in Saxony and Thuringia earlier this month.

“The party has been fragmented on all sides,” said Brandenburg’s local leader Sebastian Walter, as analyses of the result showed that voters moved from the left mainly to the “Zara Wagenknecht Alliance” (BSW) and secondarily to the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Alternative for Germany (AfD). Mr. Walter also admitted that his party realized with a delay which issues it had to raise, and estimated that at some point the “Zara Wagenknecht Alliance” would be dissolved and the lost voters would be “repatriated”. The left is also meeting today to assess the result and to initiate changes ahead of next year’s federal elections.