Almost three months before the planned federal election, the FDP has maneuvered itself into a deep crisis with its detailed plan to exit the traffic light coalition. General Secretary Bijan Djir-Sarai and Federal Managing Director Carsten Reymann resigned one day after the plan was announced. Both are close confidants of party leader Christian Lindner. It was initially unclear who would succeed them. This means that the FDP, whose re-entry into the Bundestag is questionable according to polls, must regroup just a few weeks before the planned election on February 23. Djir-Sarai wants to prevent damage to credibility Both FDP politicians were reacting to the party's "D-Day" paper, which was published on Thursday. It contains a detailed scenario for the FDP's exit from the traffic light coalition with the SPD and the Greens. On November 18, Djir-Sarai had stressed, with reference to media reports at the time about the "D-Day" formulation: "That is not true. This term was not used." He evidently had this contradiction in mind when announcing his resignation. "I unknowingly gave false information about an internal document. This was not my intention, as I had no knowledge of this document myself," said the 48-year-old in a brief statement at the Hans-Dietrich-Genscher-Haus. "I apologize for this." He is taking political responsibility "in order to prevent damage to my credibility and that of the FDP." In a written statement by Reymann, it was said that he had offered Lindner to resign from his position. Lindner had accepted this offer. "I am doing this because I want to enable a personnel reorganization of the party in the Hans-Dietrich-Genscher-Haus." The FDP is facing an important federal election, which is a direction-setting election for Germany. "The FDP should go into this election campaign with full force and without burdensome personnel debates." Reaction to the "D-Day paper" The paper on the end of the coalition, for example, states that the "ideal time" for an "announced exit" from the traffic light coalition could be in the middle of the 45th calendar week between November 4 and 10. On November 6, the long-stricken alliance actually broke up - when Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) dismissed Lindner as finance minister at a meeting of the coalition committee. Pressure grew before the resignation Immediately before Djir-Sarai's statement, the chairwoman of the Young Liberals, Franziska Brandmann, had called for his resignation. "As general secretary, Bijan Djir-Sarai bears political responsibility for the party's content and direction. In order to avert further damage to the party, I have called on Bijan Djir-Sarai, as JuLi federal chairwoman, to resign from his office," Brandmann wrote on Portal X. She declared that the paper, which had been made public the day before, was "unworthy of a liberal party." Criticism also over the wording of the strategy paper The paper also attracted criticism over its choice of words. The term "D-Day", coined in the Second World War, appears several times in it - as a synonym for the possible point in time for exiting the traffic light system. The English term "D-Day" can be translated as "Day X" or "Day of Decision". It is best known for the Allied landing in Normandy to liberate Europe from National Socialism. The beginning of this was marked by "D-Day" on June 6, 1944. It also stands for inhuman bloodshed, tens of thousands of dead and wounded. #fdp #djirsarai #kubicki #weltnetzreporter Subscribe to the WELT Netzreporter Channel / dienetzreporter WELT Nachrichtensender Channel / weltvideotv WELT DOKU Channel / weltdoku WELT Podcast Channel / weltpodcast The WELT news livestream http://bit.ly/2fwuMPg The top news on WELT.de http://bit.ly/2rQQD9Q The media library on WELT.de http://bit.ly/2Iydxv8 WELT Nachrichtensender on Instagram https://bit.ly/IGWELTTV WELT on Instagram http://bit.ly/2X1M7Hk On our own behalf: Due to the high volume of irrelevant and offensive posts, we are currently unable to allow any more comments. Thank you for your understanding - the WELT team The video was created in 2023