toON ARLY On the morning of November 6, while Europe was digesting the results of the American presidential election, three senior figures of the German government were meeting in Berlin for crisis talks. But Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck and Finance Minister Christian Lindner were not outlining a response to Donald Trump’s promised tariffs or working out how Germany could offset the loss of American support for Ukraine. Instead, they were deciding whether to blow up their fraying coalition.