Thomas Sattelberger was a Telekom board member and a long-time member of the FDP. Now he wants to challenge politics with a club. The “economists” want to be in the Bundestag in 2029.
Thomas Sattelberger: “We are market economists, not planned economists.” Photo: Imago / Lindenthaler
Mr. Sattelberger, translated into German they are “economists”. Economism means that everything is subordinated to the economy. Is this your program?
No and yes. Economy is not everything, but without economy everything is nothing, as former Chancellor Ludwig Erhard put it. No subordination, but always see the economic foundation in foreign policy, in health policy, in education policy, in social policy, i.e. in the individual policy areas. We as “economists” are market economists, not planned economists.
Are you a lobby group for business?
No. A lobby association tells politicians what its members need, and then others decide. We want people with practical experience to take on political responsibility themselves.
In a club? Didn't you have the courage to start a party right away?
We have courage. Forming a party is a real option for us. We want, yes we have to, get the right time window. And we still need a lot of money, because founding a party with the corresponding pull costs a lot. We are starting with an association because we want to create a political movement, because we are building a network that will spread our ideas and thus attract new members.
This can take time.
No. The association is the organizational haven of the movement. By the end of the year, we had created structures in six federal states and expanded our “Economist” forums there. If we found a party, we want to take part in the state elections in Lower Saxony either in 2027 or in Hesse in 2028. The goal would be to run in the federal election in 2029.
They accuse the federal government and the Bundestag of operating blindly in politics, which leads to alienation. Who is alienated?
Politics alienates itself from people's professional realities. Many people there no longer know what employees and entrepreneurs experience every day. This also leads to a loss of understanding of economic issues.
Vita – Thomas Sattelberger
Thomas Sattelberger, now 77 years old, once co-founded the “Revolutionary Youth of Germany”, the forerunner of the Communist Workers’ Association of Germany (KABD). The business economist later became a Telekom board member. He previously worked at Daimler-Benz, MTU and Lufthansa.
Sattelberger became an FDP member in 2015 and was a member of the German Bundestag for the party from 2017 to 2022. He had previously won his constituency in Bavaria outright. From December 2021 to June 2022 he was Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Education and Research. He resigned from his office and his Bundestag mandate prematurely. He resigned from the FDP in the dispute.
From the association “The Economists”, which he, among other things, founded in January 2026 with the entrepreneur Friedrich von Bohlen und Halbach and Stefanie A. Schubert, professor of economics, a party should now emerge by the 2029 federal election at the latest.
Isn't alienation taking place among social groups across the country?
For me, alienation means - and I experienced this before I resigned as a member of the Bundestag and State Secretary in the traffic light government - that politics in Berlin has become a closed bubble. And this in turn cannot prevent social division, but rather reinforces it.
There are far too few in parliament and government who understand economics.
What happens in the bubble?
It no longer has any connection to economic realities. Many MPs from the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party - especially young MPs - are predominantly humanities and social scientists and in the public service. This is legitimate, but they are disconnected from economic realities.
Only those who can read a balance sheet and are an economist are allowed to make politics, am I understanding you correctly?
Of course not. All we're saying is that there are far too few people in parliament and government who understand economics. We want to change that, that is our focus. Everyone else who supports a market economy and democracy is warmly welcome.
What exactly would you do if you had government power?
For example, a major tax reform with a flat tax and a uniform VAT rate. And above all, we must free up private capital for investments again. We are thinking of citizens' funds for investments in innovative start-ups and medium-sized companies - not run and managed by the state, but by the private sector.
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How is that supposed to work?
There was once a German economics minister after the Second World War who did the following: Every investment by a citizen in a medium-sized company was tax-free. And the growth profits from this were tax-free for companies for several years. This is activation of private capital.
This is clientele politics for entrepreneurs.
With respect, this is a form of solidarity in a society. Competitive economy creates jobs. We want to give people who want to build or maintain companies access to sufficient private capital. That's just one point. We want to quickly and comprehensively eliminate laws and standards that prevent companies from doing their work efficiently. And we want to gradually reduce the state quota, from around 52 percent today to around 30 percent by 2035.
The FDP in its outdated organization is neither digital nor does it have innovative economic expertise.
What is happening on the job market?
We are returning to the forty-hour week in the established industry. Reduced protection against dismissal, as in Switzerland or Denmark, while at the same time promoting mandatory qualification measures - in the spirit of Gerhard Schröder's “promoting and demanding” is unavoidable. We must also stop immigration into our social systems and consistently rely on qualified immigration of skilled workers.
The FDP would also sign everything like that. You were an FDP member, now you don't want to be an FDP 2.0. Why not?
The FDP in its outdated organization is neither digital nor does it have innovative economic expertise. In addition, their wings are tearing each other apart - the Strack-Zimmermann team and the Wolfgang Kubicki wing. Eco-liberals and national liberals also want to get involved. We don't want or need wings. We just want one brand core: to give political value and voice back to the economy. The FDP cannot and does not want to do that, which is why they will not sign it.
Do “economists” care about social inequality?
For one thing, not all people are the same. Second, a competitive economy creates growth and prosperity and moderates inequality. Competition and growth ultimately lead to prosperity. That's so.
Would you also let AfD members help you with this?
We do not work with extremists in the AfD. Non-extremist members and voters of the AfD are very welcome.
Would AfD leader Alice Weidel be welcome as an economist?
No.
