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The Free Democratic Party (FDP) is a German political party that traditionally emphasizes individual freedoms, free markets, and limited government intervention. It matters because it has frequently played a significant role in German coalition governments, allowing it to influence policy on issues like civil liberties and economic regulation despite typically receiving a smaller percentage of votes than larger parties.
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The Free Democratic Party (German: Freie Demokratische Partei, FDP, German pronunciation: [ɛfdeːˈpeː] ) is a liberal political party in Germany. The FDP was founded in 1948 by members of former liberal political parties in Germany before World War II, namely the German Democratic Party and the German People's Party. For most of the second half of the 20th century, when West Germany was mainly a two-party country, particularly from 1961 to 1982, the FDP as third party determined the balance of power in the Bundestag. It has been a junior coalition partner to both the CDU/CSU (1949–1956, 1961–1966, 1982–1998, and 2009–2013) and Social Democratic Party (SPD; 1969–1982 and 2021–2024 in a short-lived three party coalition with the Greens).
After an all-time high result in 2009 and four years in government under Chancellor Merkel, with a flip-flop stance towards nuclear power, in the 2013 federal election, the FDP 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. From the 2021 federal election to the 2024 German government crisis, the FDP was part of the governing Scholz cabinet in a "traffic light coalition" with the SPD and the Greens. In the 2025 federal election, the party again failed to win any directly elected seats and came up short of the 5 percent threshold to qualify for list representation, leaving the party with no seats in the Bundestag. Being left out of most state parliaments, in 2026 the FDP even lost their former stronghold Baden-Württemberg, with more elections coming up in 2026.
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1948 establishments in GermanyAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party member partiesCentre-right parties in EuropeCentrist parties in GermanyClassical liberal partiesConservative liberal partiesFree Democratic Party (Germany)Liberal conservative parties in GermanyLiberal InternationalLiberal parties in GermanyNeoliberal parties