BERLIN (AP) — One of the top officials in Germany's junior coalition party resigned Wednesday amid dismal poll ratings and a divisive internal ballot on eurozone rescue measures, a move that highlighted the pro-market party's fragile state.
Christian Lindner, 32, said he was stepping down as general secretary of the Free Democratic Party so that its leader, Vice Chancellor Philipp Roesler, can make Germany's 2013 elections "a success for the FDP."
The FDP joined Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives in government in 2009, when it won nearly 15 percent of the vote following a campaign that focused heavily on calls for income tax cuts.
In government, the party has seen those pledges ground down to almost nothing and has offered little in the way of new policies to entice voters.
A change of leadership in May, which saw the 38-year-old Roesler take the helm, has done little to help. A poll Wednesday showed the party's support at just 3 percent — not enough to win seats in parliament.
"For two years, I have been explaining and defending the FDP's policies in difficult times," Lindner said in a brief statement to reporters. The general secretary is responsible for day-to-day political strategy.
"There comes a moment in which one has to give up one's place in order to make possible a new dynamic," Lindner said. "The events of recent days and weeks have strengthened me in this view."
Lindner didn't elaborate and left without taking questions. However, the FDP has been preoccupied lately with an internal ballot on a call by dissenters for it to turn against the eurozone's permanent rescue fund — the €500 billion ($659 billion) European Stability Mechanism, which is due to start work next year.
Roesler announced later Wednesday that party treasurer Patrick Doering, 38, will take over the position of general secretary.
The party has long talked tough on the eurozone crisis. But going beyond that and rejecting the rescue fund would make life very difficult for Merkel's coalition, which already has developed a reputation for infighting.
The FDP has taken much of the blame for that, and has been punished by voters in a string of state elections this year.
Voting in the internal ballot closed Tuesday night, and a result is due Friday.
However, the rebels appear likely to fall foul of rules that require at least 21,500 of the 65,000 party members to vote to make a decision valid, and party leader Roesler already declared on Sunday that they had failed.
That in turn triggered sharp criticism of the party leadership by dissenters.
Roesler said he deeply regretted Lindner's departure and indicated that the party will choose a successor when the ballot's result is announced Friday.
"That will give us the chance to look ahead together, as the FDP, with the necessary unity," he said.
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