FDP

The leader of the economic liberals, the FDP, was first.

Wednesday's CDU motion, supported by the AfD and liberal FDP, called for a "ban" on anyone entering Germany without the right documents – but it cannot compel the current minority government to act.

Liberal FDP leader Christian Lindner has suggested that Musk's aim might perhaps be to weaken Germany in the US interest, "by recommending voting for a party that would harm us economically and isolate us politically".

But Christian Lindner’s free-market liberal FDP is ideologically opposed to new borrowing, instead calling for lower taxes, cuts in social spending and pushing back environmental targets.

When the coalition between the chancellor's centre-left Social Democrats, the environmentalist Greens and economically liberal FDP was formed in 2021, each party planned to spend big on its own individual core interest groups.