The ÜBER Candidates - The Berlin FDP Party Conference in the Light of the Public Appearance.
Christian Lindner – the SUPEREGO
The top man of the FDP is only too happy to show his party on the Berlin stage what an outstanding job he has done in recent years. There stands the man who took over the half-dead FDP in 2013, revived it almost single-handedly, and led it out of misery. He simply has everything under control in Berlin. So much so that he often appears more like a moderator of the event than its substantive director. So confident that his body language allows no moment of pause or reflection. An entertainer who gleefully looks forward to his own punchlines. Multiple self-centered statements like “and I must say, I was right” further reinforce this impression. A few percentage points of softness and closeness in Lindner’s public appearance could bring the FDP a few percentage points in votes.
Overall, Lindner appears choreographed and OVER-trained. OVER-perfection breeds mistrust… It was already like that in school. The top student was admired, but never wholeheartedly liked or trusted. Instead, people were always lurking to catch a mistake or get back at him in some other way.
Getting to the top and staying at the top requires two different communicative strategies. The communicatively integrating, connecting approach should now move more into the media focus for Christian Lindner. Then 5% will no longer be a hurdle and 10% will be within reach.
When the said composure, for which Lindner is often rightly praised, is lost on stage, his performance quickly tips into declamatory-demagogic. This becomes particularly clear when the Bild direction projects Lindner onto the giant screen and Lindner speaks in front of his screen SUPEREGO. Star Wars images are invoked that are hard to resist.
Nicola Beer
Among German political women, Nicola Beer is an exceptionally authentic personality. For the party conference, she combines a light blue leather jacket with a pearl necklace and matching stud earrings. Message: “I am a versatile rock chick, but I can also be very soft.” Absolutely coherent, to the point, without being exaggerated. Vocally, however, Beer quickly becomes tiring for the audience. On the one hand, she speaks the entire 40 minutes with a pressed head voice, which is very exhausting—for both speaker and listeners. This is made more difficult by the always same modulation and intonation of her voice. Strong yes, but uniform. The audience’s attention quickly seeks another target.
Wolfgang Kubicki
Then there is Wolfgang Kubicki, the old hand. He knows he can only be enjoyed in portions. Smart enough to use this consciously: say just enough to get others talking about it. Give impulses, then smile and retreat. His party conference appearance also makes it OVER-clear again: Love me or hate me. But don’t you dare have no opinion about me.
Those who have worked hard and diligently seem to be able to now dance lightly and casually through the party conference program as moderators. Structurally, you can loosen the reins a bit. Or? Even if it was primarily an “in-house” party conference, the messages should be sharpened to achieve maximum impact with the external audience: The SUPEREGO polish was missing here, whether on the topic of education or the FDP favorite digitalization: by September it would be advisable to review these messages for the clarity of their external effect.
CONCLUSION:
An communicative OVER-trio is entering the FDP election campaign. So OVER-confident that after some modest tones in between, one almost longed for them at the party conference. In media training, we would smooth the peaks of these ego amplitudes and work on the pleasing and nice aspects of the public FDP appearance.
For review:
Nicola Beer party conference speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk730uimLLQ&t=1622s
Christian Lindner party conference speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqoOCZlbb6w
Wolfgang Kubicki party conference speech:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk4p0as7brE
FDP election spot with Christian Lindner: