The Free Democratic Party (German: Freie Demokratische Partei, FDP) is a liberal and classical liberal political party in Germany. The FDP is led by Christian Lindner. The FDP was founded in 1948 by members of the former liberal political parties existing in Germany before World War II, the German Democratic Party and the German People's Party. For most of the Federal Republic's history, it has held the balance of power in the Bundestag. It was a junior coalition partner to either the CDU/CSU (1949–56, 1961–66, 1982–98, and 2009–13) or the Social Democratic Party of Germany (1969–82). However, in the 2013 federal election the FDP failed to win any directly elected seats in the Bundestag, and came up short of the 5 percent threshold to qualify for list representation. The FDP was therefore