Germany ruling three-party coalition has collapsed after Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired his finance minister, paving the way for an early election and triggering political chaos in Europe’s largest economy.
On Thursday, opposition conservatives urged Scholz to hold a vote of confidence immediately, enabling elections to be held in January, a day after he sacked Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the Free Democrats (FDP) party.
Scholz, who now leads a minority government with his Social Democrats and the Greens, had wanted to hold the confidence vote in January, which he would likely lose, triggering new elections by the end of March – six months ahead of elections originally scheduled for September.
Friedrich Merz, the leader of the centre-right Christian Democrats who are leading in nationwide polls, said this was too late and he wanted the vote to be held “by the beginning of next week at the latest”.
“Time is of the essence,” Merz said. “We simply cannot afford to have a government without a majority in Germany for several months now, followed by an election campaign for several more months and then possibly several weeks of coalition negotiations.”
Scholz and Merz are scheduled to meet later on Thursday, the latter planning to urge the chancellor to speed up the confidence vote. In the wake of Wednesday’s chaos, Scholz had said he would ask Merz for support in passing the budget and boosting military spending.
On Thursday, Scholz named Joerg Kukies, a top official in the chancellery and deputy finance minister, to succeed Lindner, who was sacked after months of wrangling over budget policy and Germany’s economic direction.
Scholz said he fired Lindner for his obstructive behaviour on budget disputes, accusing him of putting party before country and blocking legislation on spurious grounds, leading the FDP to quit the government.
“Too often he has engaged in small-minded party political tactics. He broke my confidence too many times,” the chancellor said of Lindner.
Lindner said the chancellor had tried to strong-arm him into breaking a constitutionally enshrined spending limit, known as the debt brake, a move that the fiscal hawk refused to support.
“Olaf Scholz refuses to recognise that our country needs a new economic model,” Lindner told reporters. “Olaf Scholz has shown he doesn’t have the strength to give his country a new boost.”
Lindner is expected to receive his letter of dismissal from President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at his residence in Berlin. Kukies is then expected to receive his appointment certificate as the new finance minister.
In the last few weeks, the coalition formed by Scholz had become “increasingly strained”.“It spectacularly imploded this evening essentially because Lindner wanted to cut taxes and cut benefits to try to improve Germany’s economy,” Smith said, predicting that Scholz is currently on course to lose the confidence vote.
Steinmeier told a news conference on Thursday that he was prepared to dissolve parliament and clear the way for new elections, warning all parties to act responsibly.
“Now is not the time for tactics and trickery, but for reason and responsibility,” he said.
The chancellor will now have to rely on cobbled-together parliamentary majorities to pass legislation and his planned parliamentary vote on confidence in his government, which is currently scheduled for January 15.
With the FDP leaving the coalition, existing cabinet members are expected to replace outgoing justice minister, Marco Buschmann, and education minister, Bettina Stark-Watzinger, according to the German news agency DPA.
However, one FDP member has broken ranks with his party and asked to stay in his role. Transport Minister Volker Wissing said on Thursday that he plans to remain in office and is leaving his party.
“I do not wish to be a burden on my party with this decision and have therefore today informed Mr Christian Lindner of my resignation from the FDP,” Wissing said in a statement, adding that he wanted to be “true to myself”.
Germany’s government crisis came just hours after the Republican Donald Trump’s victory in the United States presidential election, and as Europe scrambled to form a united response on issues from possible new US tariffs to Russia’s war in Ukraine and the future of the NATO alliance.
It also comes at a critical juncture for Germany, which is faced with a flatlining economy, ageing infrastructure and an unprepared military.A political shake-up could increase growing frustration with Germany’s mainstream parties to the benefit of younger populist movements, including the anti-immigrant, far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).