Chairman of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP), Christian Lindner is seen as one of the main contenders for the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Director of Ebert Foundation in Ukraine and Belarus, Marcel Röthig, told a roundtable conference in Gorshenin Institute on 26 September.
"As the Liberals gained a little more than the Greens, I think a liberal will head the foreign ministry. It is the head of the Christian party Lindner. I do not see other worthy candidates. Perhaps Alexander Graf Lambsdorff of the European Parliament could be an alternative, but I do not see other candidates," Röthig said.
If this post will go the Greens, then, according to Röthig, the most likely candidates would be Cem Özdemir und Katrin Göring-Eckardt.
In early August, Christian Lindner voiced a controversial proposal to "temporarily close our eyes to the annexation of Crimea". He said that Western countries should make an offer to Russian President Putin, which would allow him to change his policy without losing his face. To this end, the conflict over Crimea annexed by Russia should be "isolated" from other issues in order to make progress on other fronts.
In a separate comment, Lindner stressed that his proposal should not be regarded as the recognition of the annexation of Crimea.