Germany’s three-party governing coalition has collapsed amid mutual recriminations after Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats (SPD) fired his fiscally conservative Finance Minister Christian Lindner, the leader of the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP).
The three parties have been at odds nearly since agreeing to form the so-called traffic light coalition, but it was a debate over how to plug a large hole in next year’s budget that proved its ultimate undoing.
Lindner alleges that Scholz was trying to force him to ignore constitutionally enshrined debt limit rules. But the Social Democrats and the Greens, led in the government by Economy Minister Robert Habeck and Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, accuse the FDP of showing insufficient flexibility during what they say should have been declared as a fiscal emergency, freeing up extra funds.
Opposition parties have seized on the moment to demand Scholz call a vote of confidence — and to do it much sooner than the chancellor would like. After an unsuccessful meeting with Olaf Scholz, CDU opposition leader Friedrich Merz also met German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Berlin’s Bellevue Palace. The meeting lasted about an hour. Merz’s conversation with the head of state is believed to have been about the roadmap to a quick new election. However, details about the content or results of the conversation were not initially known. In a separate event, Steinmeier handed out discharge certificates to three outgoing Free Democrat Party (FDP) ministers. They were Finance Minister Christian Lindner, the former Justice Minister Marco Buschmann and the former Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger.
Transport Minister Volker Wissing remains in office as the only cabinet member appointed by the FDP, although he has left the party. His brief has now widened as Scholz also appointed him justice minister.
#Germany #CoalitionCollapse #GermanGovernment
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