Berlin (dpa) – “I can’t think of anyone better for this job,” Marco Buschmann, manager of the FDP parliamentary group, told Saturday’s edition of Der Spiegel news magazine.

He said he had seen in the last weeks and months how thoroughly Lindner had prepared himself for this task. “You could also see that in the negotiations.”

The FDP came fourth in last month’s Bundestag elections and is currently in formal negotiations with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), who topped the poll, and the Greens, who came third, to form a new coalition government, commonly called the traffic-light coalition because of the red-yellow-green colours that represent the parties.

Buschmann left open whether he himself would take over the office of parliamentary party leader from Lindner in that case. “I don’t know,” said the 44-year-old, who is considered a confidant of Lindner. “I want a team line-up in which we are successful together. For that, what I personally want is not so decisive.”

Buschmann emphasized the will for reform of the three negotiating parties: “We want to reform our country and the steps we have agreed on are enormous.”

He said it was “the biggest modernization project since the 1970s.”

“All three parties are pursuing a philosophy of progressive pragmatism,” Buschmann said.

The new thing about the result of the exploratory talks between the SPD, the Greens and the FDP, he said, was that they did not agree on formulaic compromises. “Everyone had to move.”