page_title: Free Democratic Party (Germany)
section_title: Leadership
hierarchical_section_title: Free Democratic Party (Germany) / Leadership
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Wolfgang Gerhardt (FDP) während einer Rede im Deutschen Bundestag.
context_page_description: The Free Democratic Party is a liberal political party in Germany. The FDP is led by Christian Lindner.
  The FDP was founded in 1948 by members of former liberal political parties which existed in Germany before World War II, namely the German Democratic Party and the German People's Party. For most of the German Federal Republic's history, it has held the balance of power in the Bundestag. It was a junior coalition partner to the CDU/CSU and the Social Democratic Party of Germany. In the 2013 federal election, the FDP failed to win any directly elected seats in the Bundestag and came up short of the 5 percent threshold to qualify for list representation, being left without representation in the Bundestag for the first time in its history. In the 2017 federal election, the FDP regained its representation in the Bundestag, receiving 10.6% of the vote.
  Predominantly classical-liberal, the FDP supports human rights, civil liberties, and internationalism. The party is traditionally considered centrist or centre-right. Since the 1980s, the party has pushed economic liberalism and has aligned itself closely to the promotion of free markets and privatization.
caption: Wolfgang Gerhardt
exif: {}