Wolfgang Kubicki | |
|---|---|
 Kubicki in 2013 | |
| Vice President of the Bundestag (on proposal of the FDP group) | |
| In office 24 October 2017 – 25 March 2025 | |
| Preceded by | Hermann Otto Solms(2013) |
| Succeeded by | Position abolished |
| First Deputy Leader of theFree Democratic Party | |
| Assumed office 7 December 2013 | |
| Leader | Christian Lindner Christian Dürr |
| Preceded by | Christian Lindner |
| Leader of theFree Democratic Party in theLandtag of Schleswig-Holstein | |
| In office 23 April 1996 – 14 December 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Ekkehard Klug |
| Succeeded by | Christopher Vogt |
| In office 5 May 1992 – 16 August 1993 | |
| Preceded by | Wolf-Dieter Zumpfort(1988) |
| Succeeded by | Ekkehard Klug |
| Leader of theFree Democratic Party inSchleswig-Holstein | |
| In office September 1989 – September 1993 | |
| Preceded by | Jens Ruge |
| Succeeded by | Jürgen Koppelin |
| Member of theBundestag forSchleswig-Holstein | |
| In office 24 October 2017 – 25 March 2025 | |
| Preceded by | Multi-member district |
| Constituency | Free Democratic Party List |
| In office 17 October 2002 – 9 December 2002 | |
| Preceded by | Multi-member district |
| Succeeded by | Christel Happach-Kasan |
| Constituency | Free Democratic Party List |
| In office 20 December 1990 – 2 August 1992 | |
| Preceded by | Multi-member district |
| Succeeded by | Michaela Blunk |
| Constituency | Free Democratic Party List |
| Member of theLandtag of Schleswig-Holstein | |
| In office 5 May 1992 – 14 December 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Multi-member district |
| Succeeded by | Jörg Hansen |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1952-03-03)3 March 1952 (age 73) |
| Political party | Free Democratic Party |
| Alma mater | University of Kiel |
Wolfgang Kubicki (born 3 March 1952) is a German politician of theFree Democratic Party of Germany (FDP) who has been vice chairman of theFDP since December 2013.
Kubicki was a member of theBundestag from 1990 to 1992 and again from 2017 to 2025. He served asVice President of the Bundestag from 2017 to 2025. From 1992 to 1993 and from 1996 to 2017 he served as chairman of the FDP group in theSchleswig-Holstein state parliament.[1]
After high school diploma in 1970 in Braunschweig Kubicki studied economics at theUniversity of Kiel, wherePeer Steinbrück was among his fellow students.[2] He graduated in 1975. After that he worked for a consulting company and from 1978 in aSteuerberater ("tax advisor") office. From 1981 to 1983 he worked as a researcher for the FDP in the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag. He finished a second degree in law, completed while working, at theUniversity of Kiel in 1982 with the first state examination. In 1985 he completed the second state examination and has worked as a lawyer since.[citation needed]
Kubicki joined the FDP in 1971. In 1972/73 he was deputy federal chairman of the Liberal University Association and in 1975/76 state chairman of theYoung Democrats inSchleswig-Holstein. Subsequently, Kubicki was first elected to the state executive committee of the Schleswig-Holstein FDP in 1976, where he served until 1988, most recently as deputy state chairman.
From 1987 to 1989, he was chairman of theRendsburg-Eckernförde FDP district association. He relinquished this office after his election as state chairman in September 1989. In September 1993, Kubicki resigned as state chairman in the wake of theSchönberg Landfill Affair. As state chairman, Kubicki was also a member of the Liberals' federal executive committee. He has done so again since 1997. He was also his party's top candidate in state elections in Schleswig-Holstein in1992,2000,2005,2009,2012 and2017.[3]
Kubicki lobbied since 2000 forGuido Westerwelle to be elected federal chairman of the FDP and to become parliamentary party leader of the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag.[4][5][6] Westerwelle thus pushedWolfgang Gerhardt out of both positions at the time. In mid-December 2010, Kubicki publicly advocated for Westerwelle's replacement as party leader of the FDP in May 2011. He compared the situation of the FDP with the late phase of theGDR and blamed the party leadership for the poll results below 5%.[7] He said that the FDP was not in a good position to be replaced.
In the 2012 state election, the FDP, with Kubicki as its top candidate, received a result of 8.2 percent of the second votes.[8] While this was a significant loss compared to the 2009 state election, when 14.9 percent was achieved, it was still the second-best election result achieved in Schleswig-Holstein. Previously, the FDP had been eliminated from six state parliaments. Therefore, the result was considered an extraordinary success, which was mainly attributed to Kubicki and labeled the "Kubicki effect".[9] In polls, he achieved 54 percent approval of the electorate of Schleswig-Holstein (compared to 18 percent forPhilipp Rösler) and 63 percent saw large differences between the state and federal FDP. Although Kubicki had never been sparing with criticism of his own party's federal policies, he already emphasized in the ZDF election broadcast that this result, which was perceived as an election victory, was precisely also a success for the federal party. In doing so, he clearly countered putsch rumors against the chairman of the federal FDP Philipp Rösler that had previously arisen in public even before the end of the election evening. In August 2012, Kubicki announced his intention to run as the top candidate for the Schleswig-Holstein FDP in the 2013 federal election.[10]
At the 2013 FDP federal party convention, Kubicki succeeded then-Development MinisterDirk Niebel, who was eliminated in the first round of voting, as an assessor on the federal presidium. Kubicki then won in a fight vote against Health MinisterDaniel Bahr.[11] The Extraordinary Party Congress of the FDP in December 2013 elected Kubicki as 1st Deputy to the new party leaderChristian Lindner with 89.87% of the vote.[12] The 2015 FDP Federal Party Congress confirmed Kubicki in this position with 94.2% of the vote, and the 2017 FDP Federal Party Congress with 92.29%.[13]
Kubicki is a member of the FDP's Executive Committee.
Kubicki is a member of the advisory board of the German-Arab Society.
In May 2018, Kubicki failed with his demand at the FDP party congress to ease economic sanctions against Russia.After thepoisoning ofAlexei Navalny, Kubicki proposed an import ban on Russian gas. He supported the FDP parliamentary group's proposal for a moratorium on the construction of theNord Stream 2 gas pipeline.[14]
In March 2024, Kubicki declared that he would vote in favor of the delivery ofTaurus KEPD 350 cruise missiles toUkraine.[15]
In August 2018, Kubicki commented on theChemnitz protests blamingMerkel's migration policy for the roots of the riots. This position resulted in criticism by fellow party members includingMarie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann andRia Schröder. However, he said, this is not an explanation for agitation, racism and violence. However, other party members such as Christian Lindner andNicola Beer defended Kubicki, who later wrote in a statement on social media that citizens "have the feeling that the state is allowing itself to be paraded - by the right and the left. Shouting 'Germany sucks' and throwing paving stones at police officers is at least as condemnable as right-wing agitation against alleged migrants."[16]
On February 5, 2020, Kubicki defended the election of Thomas Kemmerich (FDP) as Thuringia's prime minister with the votes of the FDP,AfD andCDU. The vote of Kemmerich with help of the AfD was rejected by other parties and resulted in theThuringian government crisis.[17]
On April 28, 2020, Kubicki criticized theRobert Koch Institute (RKI) and its presidentLothar Wieler and accused the published figures of being rather politically motivated than scientifically based, as according to Kubicki the suggested implementations of restrictions falling numbers.[18] Furthermore, Kubicki criticized the federal government and theFederal Ministry of Health underJens Spahn for poor management of vaccine procurement, the introduction of theCorona-Warn-App, as well as for imposing curfews as a mean of dealing with the virus.[19] In June 2021, Kubicki called for the repeal of all measures which restricting fundamental rights according to him because the legal basis had lapsed due to persistent 7-day incidences below 35.[20][21]
Kubicki has publicly declared that he has violated against the lockdowns set by the federal government himself.[22]
In November 2021, Kubicki called the chairman of theWorld Medical Association,Frank Ulrich Montgomery the "Saddam Hussein of the medical profession."[23] Montgomery had previously sharply criticized the FDP's Corona policy. After strong criticism, Kubicki apologized to Montgomery.[24] In the speech in which he attacked Montgomery, he also criticized Corona management in parts of southern Germany. He also claimed thatMarkus Söder was putting his own career ambitions ahead of protecting the public, calling Söders regulations to be out of character and "humanly pathetic."
In December 2021, he positioned himself against general mandatory vaccination against Covid-19 and formulated a motion against it with other FDP deputies. Kubicki sees the general vaccination requirement as unconstitutional and called it a serious breach of trust. In addition, he stated that many supporters of compulsory vaccination seemed to be primarily concerned with revenge and retaliation against the unvaccinated.[25] As a result, he was also criticized within the party.
In early 2022, Kubicki called on Bavarian Minister President Markus Söder to resign, accusing him of misleading the public regarding the role of the unvaccinated in the infection process. Söder had previously spoken of a "pandemic of the unvaccinated" and in mid-November 2021 had referred to figures according to which the incidence among vaccinated persons was 110, but that among unvaccinated persons was 1469. It later became known that this calculation added people with unknown vaccination status to the unvaccinated group, potentially overestimating the role of the unvaccinated.[26]
TheSchönberg landfill (now Ihlenberg landfill) inMecklenburg-Vorpommern was created from the former "VEB Landfill Schönberg". In 1991, Kubicki began advising the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on its privatization for a fee of DM 850,000. He was soon accused of giving the state bad advice and charging excessive fees. Above all, the state-owned operating company had been left to bear the risks and environmental obligations and had almost been driven into insolvency, while one of Kubicki's business partners, the Lübeck waste contractor Adolf Hilmer, had "skimmed off 52 million marks in profit in the first three years alone" as a tenant.[27]
However, Kubicki is said to have concealed his contact with Hilmer. At the beginning of 1993, the State Audit Office of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern criticized the "miserable conduct of negotiations" by the Mecklenburg Ministry of the Environment and estimated that the state had suffered damages of 100 million marks as a result of "gagging contracts."[28] The Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state parliament convened a committee of inquiry to clarify the allegations and later sued Kubicki for damages. Kubicki resigned from the chairmanship of the FDP and the parliamentary group in Kiel in 1993. However, theFederal Court of Justice ruled in Kubicki's favor in the legal dispute, which had lasted for years.[29]
Kubicki is married to attorney Annette Marberth-Kubicki. They live inStrande and maintain a holiday residence inSanta Ponsa.[32]
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Leader of theFree Democratic Party inSchleswig-Holstein 1989–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of theFree Democratic Party in theLandtag of Schleswig-Holstein 1992–1993 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Leader of theFree Democratic Party in theLandtag of Schleswig-Holstein 1996–present | Incumbent |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
