{"id":169612,"date":"2024-11-07T00:56:08","date_gmt":"2024-11-07T00:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/07\/germanys-coalition-government-on-the-brink-of-collapse-after-key-minister-is-sacked\/"},"modified":"2024-11-07T00:56:08","modified_gmt":"2024-11-07T00:56:08","slug":"germanys-coalition-government-on-the-brink-of-collapse-after-key-minister-is-sacked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/07\/germanys-coalition-government-on-the-brink-of-collapse-after-key-minister-is-sacked\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany’s coalition government on the brink of collapse, after key minister is sacked"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Germany’s<\/div>\n
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Germany’s ruling coalition is on the brink of collapse, triggering potential political chaos in Europe’s largest economy.<\/p>\n

It means Chancellor Olaf Scholz<\/strong><\/a> and his Social Democratic Party (SDP) face heading a minority government after sacking his finance minister Christian Lindner from the pro-business Free Democrats Party (FDP).<\/p>\n

Mr Scholz made the decision after weeks of disputes among Germany’s<\/a><\/strong> coalition partners over ways to boost the country’s ailing economy.<\/p>\n

Added to that, the government’s popularity has been sinking while far-right<\/a><\/strong> and far-left forces have been surging.<\/p>\n

He said Mr Lindner “has broken my trust too often”, and claimed he was focused on the short-term survival of his own party. “This kind of selfishness is utterly incomprehensible,” he added.<\/p>\n

The three other FDP ministers – for transport, justice, and education – all voluntarily left the government.<\/p>\n

“Olaf Scholz refuses to recognise that our country needs a new economic model,” Mr Lindner said. “Olaf Scholz has showed he doesn’t have the strength to give his country a new boost.”<\/p>\n

Mr Lindner had rejected tax increases or changes to Germany’s strict self-imposed limits on running up debt.<\/p>\n

Social Democrats and the Greens, who are also part of the coalition, want to see massive state investment. They had rejected proposals by the FDP to cut welfare programmes.<\/p>\n

\n
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It’s not if, but when, the coalition collapses<\/h4>\n<\/p>\n

The German Chancellor is a controlled man, so the uncharacteristic anger on display as he announced he had sacked his finance minister and fixed a vote of confidence for January was telling.<\/p>\n

The fractures in Germany’s coalition government have been widening for months.<\/p>\n

The ailing economy, dismal showing in the European parliamentary elections and rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD) have led to growing questions about when the coalition will collapse, rather than if it will.\n<\/p>\n

Germany’s general election is currently pencilled in for September 2025 but if Olaf Scholz loses the confidence vote on 15 January, then a snap election is likely to take place by the end of March.\n<\/p>\n

Current polls put the party of the former Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), in the lead followed by the AfD.\n<\/p>\n

Using today’s numbers, the most likely scenario would be another coalition government potentially with the CDU, the social democrats and maybe even the Greens.<\/p>\n

But all this is jumping ahead.<\/p>\n

The hammer blow to the German government coalition on the day Donald Trump was re-elected is a coincidence but it’s also very bad timing.<\/p>\n

The return of Trump raises questions around NATO, the war in Ukraine and possible trade wars in the future.<\/p>\n

Europe now more than ever needs to be united; a task made more difficult when the leadership of its largest economic power is in crisis.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

It leaves Mr Scholz relying on parliamentary majorities to pass legislation.<\/p>\n

He plans to hold a confidence vote in his government on 15 January. The result could trigger snap elections by the end of March.<\/p>\n

Read more from Sky News:
Should we be worried about Donald Trump<\/a>
Kamala Harris tells supporters ‘we must accept result’<\/a>
Ireland’s PM sets out plans for general election<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Scholz said he would ask Friedrich Merz, leader of the conservative opposition CDU, who are far ahead in polls, for support in passing the budget and boosting military spending.<\/p>\n

Mr Merz is due to respond to the request later on Thursday.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Across 2024, Germany’s economy is expected to shrink – or at best flatline – for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n

The country has struggled under external shocks and home-grown problems, including red tape and a shortage of skilled labour.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Germany’s ruling coalition is on the brink of collapse, triggering potential political chaos in Europe’s largest economy. It means Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his Social Democratic Party (SDP) face heading a minority government after sacking his finance minister Christian Lindner from the pro-business Free Democrats Party (FDP). Mr Scholz made the decision after weeks of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/11\/1920x1080\/skynews-christian-lindner-olaf-scholz_6741177.jpg?20241106231939","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13191,34807,3045,18168,3954,2733,2124,8474],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169612"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169612"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169614,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169612\/revisions\/169614"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}