Photo credit: Foreign Policy
Germany’s coalition collapsed on Wednesday as Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired the finance minister, paving the way for a snap election and triggering political chaos in Europe’s largest economy.
Reuters reports that Scholz, after dismissing Finance Minister Cristian Lindner of the Free Democrats (FDP) party, is expected to head a minority government with his Social Democrats and the Greens, the second-largest party.
Scholz said he would call a confidence motion in his government for January 15, the precursor to holding an election by the end of March.
Under rules created to prevent the kind of coalition turmoil that hastened the end of Germany’s interwar democracy, the chancellor largely controls the pace of events: the opposition can only push him out earlier if they can find a majority for a specific alternative chancellor, which would be challenging with the current parliamentary arithmetic.
Germany’s president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said he would not use his power to block Scholz’s push for early elections once Parliament has held a confidence vote.
The Greens, the second-largest party in the original three-way coalition, will stay in government. Although they don’t have a parliamentary majority, they must cobble together ad hoc support for individual votes from other parties.
Scholz has said he would ask Friedrich Merz, leader of the opposition conservatives, to support urgently needed budgetary measures. He says government action on Germany’s crisis-stricken economy must act before the election for government action.
Merz has called on Scholz to hold a confidence motion within a week, allowing elections as early as January. But he has no practical way of forcing Scholz to act sooner than March.
However, Merz could refuse to vote for Scholz’s proposed emergency measures. But this would risk harming causes Merz cherishes like support for Ukraine against Russian invasion. With a substantial lead over all the coalition parties in the polls, Merz might be reluctant to give Scholz a win shortly before an election.
