Christian Lindner
Christian Wolfgang Lindner is a German retired politician of the Free Democratic Party who was the Federal Minister of Finance from 2021 until his dismissal in 2024 during a government crisis. Serving from 2013 to 2025, Lindner was the longest-serving party-leader of the FDP and a Member of the Bundestag for North Rhine-Westphalia from 2017 to 2025, having previously held a seat from 2009 until 2012. Lindner resigned as party leader and announced his retirement from active politics after the FDP dropped out of parliament as a result of the 2025 federal election. His decision to withdraw from the Scholz cabinet is often considered the main catalyst for the party's inability to enter the Bundestag in the election.
Early life and education
Christian Lindner was born in Wuppertal, West Germany. His father Wolfgang Lindner is a teacher of mathematics and computer science at the Städtisches Gymnasium in Wermelskirchen.After graduating from Gymnasium in 1998 and an alternative civilian service, Christian Lindner studied political science at the University of Bonn from 1999 to 2006. After eleven semesters he acquired the academic degree of Magister Artium. In his master's thesis at the Institute of Political Science, he dealt with the topic: "Tax competition and revenue sharing. Can the financial constitution be reformed?" In 2006, he began writing his dissertation under supervision from political science professor Frank Decker, which he has so far not completed due to his political activities.
While studying, Lindner became a reserve officer in the German Air Force. In 2002, he was promoted to First Lieutenant in the Reserve. In 2008 he was a liaison officer to the state command Landeskommando of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Düsseldorf. Since September 2011 he has held the rank of Captain in the Reserve. Currently, Lindner is a Major in the Air Force.
Early political career
Lindner joined the FDP in 1995. He has been a member of the executive board of the FDP in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 1998 and became Secretary General in 2004. At the May 2000 election for the Landtag of North Rhine-Westphalia, the 21-year old Lindner was elected, becoming the youngest MP in the history of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lindner was from 2000 initially 'spokesman for Intergenerational Affairs, Family and Integration' and then from 2005 to 2009 was also vice chairman of the FDP parliamentary group in the parliament and spokesman for Innovation, Science and Technology. In 2007 he also became a member of the federal executive board of the FDP.From 2009 Lindner was a member of the German Bundestag. In the negotiations to form a coalition government following the 2009 federal elections, he was part of the FDP delegation in the working group on families, integration of immigrants and culture, led by Maria Böhmer and Hans-Joachim Otto.
From December 2009 until his surprise resignation in December 2011, Lindner was also Secretary General of the FDP on federal level, largely under the leadership of party chairman Guido Westerwelle and later under Philipp Rösler when Westerwelle had to resign. Lindner's resignation was caused by an internal party vote which had been forced by a group centered around the Eurosceptic FDP parliamentarian Frank Schäffler to determine the FDP's future course on questions pertaining to the European Stability Mechanism.
Lindner was later chosen to chair the North Rhine-Westphalian FDP in the 2012 state election of North Rhine-Westphalia, succeeding Daniel Bahr. In the election, the FDP received 8.6% of the vote, surpassing all expectations at the time as the party had been fighting over all the country to reach the minimum representation of 5% for years and was losing representation in several states. Following the party's victory at that election he was elected Parliamentary leader of the FDP in the North Rhine-Westphalian Landtag, succeeding Gerhard Papke on 15 May 2012, and worked in the opposition. In March 2013, he was elected one of Rösler's deputies, alongside Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger and Holger Zastrow.
FDP Chairman
Lindner was elected the new chairman of the FDP following the resignation of Chairman Philipp Rösler after the 2013 German federal elections in which the FDP failed to clear the 5% hurdle to enter the Bundestag for the first time since 1949.Ahead of the 2014 European elections, Lindner and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte served as 'mediators' between Olli Rehn and Guy Verhofstadt, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe's candidates for the presidency of the European Commission; eventually, the candidates agreed to jointly lead the ALDE's campaign for elections, with Verhofstadt running to succeed José Manuel Barroso. At the time, Lindner was widely regarded to support Rehn.
Lindner was a FDP delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2017, where he endorsed the government's candidate Frank-Walter Steinmeier. That same year, he led his party's successful campaign for the 2017 state elections of North Rhine-Westphalia, which resulted in the FDP joining the state government of incoming Minister-President Armin Laschet. Lindner himself did not take a position in the new government because of his aim to lead the FDP back to the Bundestag in September 2017.
Return to the Bundestag
In the 2017 German federal election, Lindner led the FDP to achieve a result of 10.7%. After that success he was elected leader of the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag.In October 2017, Angela Merkel's CDU and Katrin Göring-Eckardt's and Cem Özdemir's Greens started negotiations with the FDP to form a government, in which Lindner was widely seen as the future Minister of Finance, as the CDU had even nominated the former Minister Wolfgang Schäuble as President of the Bundestag to make place for the FDP. Such a coalition was the only realistic possibility to form a government but had almost never been used before on any regional level in Germany. In November 2017, after midnight, Lindner and his party left the already prolonged negotiations after four unsuccessful weeks, which led to the longest government formation in German history and finally in March 2018 once more to a Grand Coalition with the SPD, which had previously rejected any participation in the new government.
In 2021 Christian Lindner was re-elected federal chairman of the FDP with 93 percent of the vote and at the same time was chosen as the party's top candidate for the federal election.
Federal Minister of Finance
Following the 2021 German federal election, the FDP agreed to enter government with the Greens and Social Democrats, as part of a traffic light coalition led by Olaf Scholz. Lindner was named as Finance Minister, and took office on 8 December 2021.After the G7 countries announced that they would present strong sanctions against Russia, Lindner stated that they should target Russian oligarchs. He stated: "We are working on further sanctions. I am particularly concerned that the oligarchs should be affected. Those who have profited from Putin and stolen the wealth of the Russian people, including through corruption, should not be allowed to enjoy their prosperity in our Western democracies".
On the night of 24 February 2022, right after Russia started its invasion of Ukraine, Lindner according to the Ambassador of Ukraine in Germany told Ukraine's ambassador Andriy Melnyk that "Ukraine has only a few hours" left, so he opposed arms supplies to Kyiv and Russia's disconnection from SWIFT. On 17 May 2022, Lindner said he is "politically open to the idea of seizing" the frozen foreign-exchange reserves of the Central Bank of Russia —which amount to over $300 billion— to cover the costs of rebuilding Ukraine after the war.
In August 2022, Lindner announced a "big step" to improve anti-money laundering and sanctions enforcement in Germany: he wanted to create a "Federal Financial Criminal Investigation Office" to end the good conditions for money laundering in Germany. The GdP warned of fragmented responsibilities and authorities at federal and state levels; rather, Lindner should strengthen the existing Federal Customs Office. To this day there is no "Federal Financial Criminal Investigation Office". Experts criticize that the new agency lacks the authority to seizure suspicious assets by administrative order and the exclusion of tax-related offences from its jurisdiction, according to a draft published until September 2023.
Lindner has been a staunch defender of the constitutionally-enshrined debt brake and seen as reluctant to agree another suspension in 2024.
In July 2024 Lindner argued that Germany would need to halve its aid to Ukraine. In August 2024 Lindner halted new aid to Ukraine, saying the aid would in future be supplied from the frozen funds in the west of the Russian Central Bank. Robert Habeck, among others, thought that this might stress the ruling coalition, and this had already impacted the promised Diehl IRIS-T system, which turned out not to have been funded by Germany after all because of the restrictions put in place by Lindner.
In September 2024, Lindner agreed with an FDP position paper that proposed cuts to the social benefits for asylum seekers, as well as designating some North African countries as "safe" for ease of repatriation.
On 6 November 2024, Lindner's dismissal was proposed by Olaf Scholz, citing loss of trust. On 7 November he was dismissed from office by the Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. His removal led to the collapse of the governing coalition, with two other FDP members resigning from their ministries and a third minister leaving the FDP.