Hesse's FDP is positioning itself with its state list for the 2023 state election. The top candidate is already making it clear what will not happen with him in the upcoming election campaign.
Wetzlar (dpa/lhe) - The Hessian FDP is moving into the upcoming state election campaign with its top candidate Stefan Naas. At a party meeting in Wetzlar on Saturday, the Liberals elected the 49-year-old member of parliament to first place on their state list with 277 out of 297 valid votes. This corresponded to an approval of around 93 percent.
The leader of the parliamentary group, René Rock, took second place with 80.8 percent. The deputy state chair Wiebke Knell came in third place, she received an approval of almost 91 percent. The Hessian Liberals voted FDP General Secretary Moritz Promny fourth with 76.7 percent and Marion Schardt-Sauer fifth. She prevailed against an opposing candidate with 55 percent. The 2023 state election is scheduled to take place next fall.
"We are going into these state elections as an independent force," said Naas in front of around 300 delegates who had come together in Wetzlar for a party conference and a state representative meeting. With him there will be no second vote election campaign. "We need both votes for the Hessian FDP because it's necessary. We want to end black and green." Naas did not spare criticism of the black-green state government and said that Hesse now needs "doers". 2023 is about prosperity, education and the economy. It is time for a "clear economic policy".
FDP state leader Bettina Stark-Watzinger said that the liberals will not measure themselves against others during the election campaign, "but only against our own demands". They want a future for the country that enables advancement, self-determination and prosperity. "The coming generations - they should have ecologically, socially and economically intact future prospects."
Top candidate Naas is a lawyer and, among other things, spokesman for transport and economic policy in the state parliamentary group. He had already been proposed for the first place on the list in the summer.
In the last state election in 2018, the FDP received 7.5 percent of the vote. The party has eleven seats in the state parliament in Wiesbaden.
